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f ■

THE WORKS

IIUBEKT HOWE BANCROFT.

^^?3I5HR«

THE WORKS

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT.

VOLUME XXXVI.

POPULAR TRIBUNALS.

Vol. I.

SAN FRANCISCO:
THE HISTORY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.

1887.

F.„t.T.Ml n,-.-..r,Uii« t.^ Aot of ('o>,^t.ss ,n Hm' War 18-7, by

nrr.Kirr ii r.ANciunT.

1„ tt.r om.-. f th.' I.il.niii») ..f <^ii.t;n>s, at WaHlunu't-.n.

.1// Unjlils Uisirtrd.

' ^'

PREFACE.

During my researches in Pacific States history,
and particularly while tracing the development of
Anijlo- American communities on the western side
of the United States, I fancied I saw unfolding into
healthier proportions, under the influence of a purer
atmosphere, that sometime dissolute principle of po-
litical etliics, the right of tlic governed at all times
to instant and arbitrary control of the government.
The right thus claimed was not to be exercised except
in cases of emergency, in cases where such interfer-
ence should be deemed necessary, but it was always
existent; and as the people themselves were to de-
termine what should constitute emergency and what
necessity, these qualifications were impertinent.

Though liable at times to the grossest abuse, I
found this sentiment latent among widely spread and
intelligent i:)eoples, but in a form so anomalous that
few would then admit to themselves its presence
amoncr their convictions. It was a doctrine acted
rather tlian spoken, and existing as yet in practice
only, never having through formulas of respectability
worked itself out in theory. Yet it was palpably
present, more often as a regretted necessity, usually
denounced in judicial and political circles, though
clearly operating under certain conditions to the wel-
fare of society.

(Vii)

yUi

l*l!KI ACK.

Fiudinjif on these Pacilic shores, in u dej^rec superior
to any elsewhere appearinu^ in the annals of the race,
this phase of ai'hitrary power as tlisplayecl by the
many JVpular Tribunals liere engendered, I pressed
iii([uiry in that direction, and these volumes are the
i-csult. It is all history; and tliough herein I some-
times indulge in details which might swell unduly
exact historical nai'ration, I have felt constrained to
omit more facts and illustrations than I have <xiven.
These omissions, however, are not made at random,
or to the injury of the work, but only after carefully
arranging and comparing all the information on the
subject I have been able to gather.

And the material was abundant. Beside printed
books, manuscripts, and the several journals of the
period advocating the opposite sides of the question,
I was fortunate enough to secure all the archives of
the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851,
and to obtain free access to the voluminous records
and documents of the great Committee of 185G. But
this was not all. Well knowing that the hidden work-
ings of the several demonstrations could be obtained
only from the mouths of their executive officers, I took
copious dictations from those who had played the most
prominent parts in the tragedies. From one member
I learned what occurred on a given occasion at the
point where he happened to be; I'rom another, what
was taking place at the same time at another point
of observation ; and so on, gathering from each some-
thing the others did not know or remember. By
putting all together I was enabled to complete the
picture of what were otherwise a conglomeration of
figures and events.

At first I found the gentlemen of 185G exceedingly

PRKFACK.

ipcrior
c race,
by the
pressed
iro the
" soinc-
unduly
ined to

ociven.
andom,
ircfully

on the

printed
of the
uestion,
lives of
)f 1851,
records
G. But
)n work-
Dbtoincd
s, I took
the most
member
II at the
er, what
ler point
cli somc-
)er. By
)lcte the
ration of

3eedingly

backward in divulsj^inc: secrets so lonijf licld sacred; and
it was only after I had j^iven thcni the most convincing
assurances of the strength and purity of my i)urpose
that I obtained their united consent to pkice me in
possession of their whole knowledge of the matter.
Often had they been applied to for such information,
and as often had they declined giving it. And for
good reasons. They had offended the law; they had
done violence to many who still cherished hatred;
they had suifered from annoying and expensive suits
at law brought against them by the expatriated ; they
had disbanded but had not disorganized, and they did
not know at what moment they might again be sum-
moned to rise in defence of societv, or to band for
nmtual protection. From the beginning it was held
by each a paramount obligation to divulge nothing.

On the other hand the questions arose : Are these
secrets to die with you ? ^lay not the kno vledge of
your experience be of value to succeeding societies?
Have you the right to bury in oblivion that experi-
ence, to withhold from your fellow-citizens and from
posterity a knowledge of the ways by which you
achieved so grand a success? And so after many
meetings, and warm deliberations, it was agreed that
the information should be placed at my disposal for
the purpose of publication.

However I may have executed my task, the time
selected for its performance was most opportune.
Ten years earlier the actors in these abnormal events
would on no account have divulged their secrets; ten
years later many of them will have passed away, and
the opportunity be forever lost for obtaining informa-
tion which they alone could give.

!•

COXTENTS OF IlIIS VOLUME.

CHAPTER I. "*««

ABERRATIONS OF JCSTICK, ANCIEN'l' AM) 5IODERN, 1

CHAPTER II.

POPULAR TRIUUNALS AND I'OrULAR GOVERNMENT, -Jl

CHAPTER III.

ENOENDERiNM C(JNDITIONS, 40

CHAPTER IV.

BIONIFICATIONS OF STORM, til

CHAPTER V.

THE HOUNDS ASSOCIATION, 7(5

CHAPTER VI.

THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY UF REGULATORS, 88

CHAPTER VII.

IE ADVENT OF LAV/, 103

CHAPTER VIII.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CRDIE IN CALIFORNIA, 1 l.'J

CHAPTER IX.

LAW AND DISORDER, 129

CHAPTER v.

MOBOCRACY IN THE MINES, 142

xii (OXTI.NTS.

CHAPTi:i{ XI. i-^'*

It r.nir.i! antics or irsiK r. in iiii; idintuy ir.s

CHAPTKH XII.

THi; lU lilifK-STlAKT AITAIK I71I

CHAl'TEIl Xni.

(IHCAMZATIdN DF Till' SAN IliAM ISCi) ('(JMMITTEE OF ViniLANCK

OF 1S.")1, .... "JOl

CHAPTER XIV.

1 ..IIINP Tin: SCFNKS, -JU

CHAPT]:H XV.

JOHN JENKINS, NDI.LNS VOI.KNS ^tlC)

CHAPTKK XVI.

Tin: SAN iiiANcisci. Kxr.criivi; ro:\iMiTTi;i: of ISol 240

CITAPTKI! XVII.

vic.n.ANci: liixoMr.s a I'<j\vi:k 2.w

CIIAPTKPi XVIII.

ENTEll JAME.S STIAKT, 2(17

CHAPTER XIX.

EXIT .ia:»ii:s stfakt 280

CHAPTER XX.

A lilsV MdN'lII, 21)0

CHAPTER XXI.

oi'i'osiTioN in vion.ANi i: ADMiNisTUATioN ;n:{

CHAPTER XXII.

WlHiTAKEll AND JU KEN/IK, ;{.T>

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE CinCt'MVENTOHS CIELTMVENTED, 3oO

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350

CONTEXTS. xiii

CHAPTER XXIV. !•*'■=

MINOR 1{.\SC.VLITIES, "iGT

CHAPTER XXV.

TUE INQUISITORS IN COUN'CII,, 380

^** CHAPTER XXVI.

CLOSE OF TUE ITUST CliUS.VUi:, .' 3t)3

I CHAPTER XXVII.

13EF0UE Tin; WOItLD, 407

CHAPTER XXVIII.

EXTENSION OF THE VIGILANCE I'lUNCIPLE, 429

CHAPTER XXIX.

^ COUNTRY C'OSniITTEES OF VIGILANCE, 441

CHAPTER XXX.

INFELICITIES AND .VI.LEVIATIONS, 515

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE POWNTEVILLE TRAGEDY, r)77

CIIAPTEPt XXXII.

THE POl'ULAH TRIUUNALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA, oOS

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE I'lil II.AU TRIIUNALS OF OltEGOX, WASIlI.Ni i TON, lUUTISH C'OLr:^!-

r.IA, AND ALASKA, C)'2'2

CHAPTER XXXIV.

TUE I'OITLAR TItlliUNALS OF IDAHO, G.'i4

CHAPTER XXXV.

POPULAR TRIUUNALS OF JIONTANA, G7 4

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE POPULAU TKUiUNALS OF ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO, 7:22

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POPULAR TRIBUNALS.

CHAPTER I.

ABERRATIOXS OF JUSTICE. ANCIENT AND MODERN.

At Halifax the law so sharpe doth deale,
Ihat who3o more than thirteen pence doth stcale,
Ihoy luivc a jyn tliat wondrous quick and well
bends thieves all headless into heaven or hell.

Taylor, The Water Poet.

Popular tribunals, wherein is attempted the ille-
gal administration of justice by the people, have
become quite prominent among those social parox-
ysms incident to rapid progress. The principle in
its several phases, and as at present existin<r is
essentially a latter-day development. Dan-veroiJ^' or
otlienvise, it is the outgrowth of enlightenment, of
intellectual emancipation. While the doctrine of the
divinity of law, that is of statutory or otlier than
natural law, held bound men's minds, there were
coni])aratively few examples of illegal justice; but
when it came generally to be felt that statutes were
no more sacred than the men who made them leo-al
impositions and vicious technicalities were less pa-
tiently endured.

Not that antiquity was wholly without its rio-ht-
compelhng powers, but they were of a different o?der
trom our modern demonstrations. But neither the old
nor the new were such as Plato would have chosen for
his Kepubhc, or Saint Augustine for his City of God or

Vol. I. 1 t, }

ABERRATIONS OF JUSTICE.

Sir Thomas More for his Utopia, or Lord Bacon for
his New Atlantis. A theorist could scarcely have
concocted so paradoxical a proposition as the modern
popular tribunal, and the thing was left to concoct
itsclt:

There was government by factions in the olden
time, such as in the days of Cicero and Pompey kept
Rome for nearly four years in a state of anarcliy.
It was Clodius and his hired gladiators who did it.
Even as at present, sometimes, assassins were at work ;
elections were tampered with, and the senate was
overawed. Men talked of military rule, the thought
(jf wliich was pleasing to both Pompey and Caisar- ;
for strange to say, when backed by strong battalions,
the rival allies both loved to reign. How it would
have ende^[ it is difficult to say, had not Milo and his
jKirtisans, likewise with a patrol of gladiators, opposed
and finally overthrown Clodius. But for a time, like
the Capulets and Montagues at Verona, the parties
of Clodius and Milo walked the streets of Rome, bid-
dino- deliance alike to governors and governed.

In feudal times almost every state had its system
of secret tribunals, where judgments, most unex-
pectedly to the victims, were passed in darkness and
executed in the light. Whereat innocent and guilty
alike trembled ; no one could tell when his own turn
would come, or when he might be executed for he
knew not what. The guilty mind was thus always
on the rack, and fortunate was the offender who was
not first condemned and then caught.

During the Middle Age the knights of Germanv
formed an independent feudal order, and threw off
allegiance to any prince. Their depredations at first
were not incompatible with the then existing ideas of
respectability, but as they were driven into corners b}'
the growth of towns, the order degenerated toward
the close of the fifteenth century, until its membe.' ;
were nothing less than highwaymen. In 1522 they
infested the country round Nuremberg, and took many

■■■#

axcip:nt tribunals.

])iis()iu)r.s. They liad a, fashion of cutting off* the right
liand of those they captured, thereby rendering them
helpless in any future encounter.

There were several terms used in bygone times to
denote the process of punishing first and trying after-
ward. There was Cowper law, due to a baron-bailo
in Coupar-Angus, before the abolition of heritable
jurisdiction. We find also the expressions Jedburgh,
Jedwood, and Jeddart justice ; also Lynford law, from a
fortified town of that name in Devon, where criminals
wore confined, before trial, in a dungeon so loathsome
that no punishment could be greater.

Venice had its Council of Ten, a secret tribunal of
the republic, instituted subsequent to the conspiracy
of Tiepolo. It uas originally composed of ten coun-
cillors, arrayed in black. Soon six others in red wuv
added, and these together with the doge exercised
unlimited power. Temporarily established at first, it
was continued for a time from year to year, and finalh'
in 13 .15 declared permanent. As late as 1454 we
find this tribunal exercising its secret pleasure, in t1i<*
name of justice, under the following arrangement:
Citizens, chosen by the Council as inquisitors t<»
execute its will, must not refuse to serve. The
inquisitors might proceed against any person, no mat-
tor of what rank; they might pronounce the deatli
sentence, or any other; they had chargeof the prisons,
and drew money from the treasury of the Council of
Ton without question as to its use. The proceedings
( )i'thc tril)unal must bo alu'ays secret ; its members must,
wear no distinctive badge; no open arrests should bo
made, no public executions, but the condemned of
the tribunal should be drowned at night in the Orfano
Canal. The relatives of the escaped oflfenders should
be puiiishod; any offensive official might be secret! v
assassinated. This happy state of things continu(>d
until the fall of the republic, in 1797.

In France there were the Council of the Ancients,
and the Council of Five Hundred, and in Spain the

ABERIIATI0N8 OF JUSTICE.

Council of Caatilo; but these, and many otherH similar,
wore bodies advisory of the government, and acted in
that capacity, or subject to the regulations of the
government, and not in antagonism to it.

Aragon and Castile boasted their Holy Brother-
hood, and for centuries tlieir sovereigns smiled on
its important services. In Spain, during the thir-
teenth and iburteenth centuries, along the line divid-
ing the hostile Goth and Arab, the frontiers of both
Spanish and Moslem domination, law was impotent
and anarchy mightier than kings. The towns were
obliged to league for mutual protection. Associating
under the n. ine of Santa TIermandarJ, or Holy
Brotherhood, they levied contributions for their sup-
port, and organized troops for service. They protected
travellers, pursued criminals, and appointed judges who
paid little heed to what the lord of the domain might
think of it, or to his laws or jurisdiction. They scoured
the mountains for robbers, and caught, tried, and exe-
cuted them after their own fashion for many scores
of years. But here, also, the king gave both favor
and support to the association.

The Vehmgericht of Westphalia has been held up
as an institution of wliicli the present popular tribunal
is a representation; but there is little in common
between them, either in letter or in spirit. The Vehm-
gericht was a secret tribunal, established for the
preservation of the true faith, the promotion of peace,
and the suppression of crime. All its doings were
enveloped in mystery. Its secret spies penetrated to
the remotest corners of Germany, its judges were un-
known, its judgments were swift, and their execution
was certain.

Scotland once gloried in a sort of lynch-law, called
burlaw, from the Dutch haiir, a boor, or rustic. In
tlio rural districts the people made certain laws to suit
emergencies, and appointed one of their number, called
the burlaw-man, to see them executed. Two and a
Juilf centuries ago tliei-e was what was called Halifax

FRANCK AN'I) KXGLAND,

the

eace,

wore

ited to

re un-

cutiou

called
c. In
to suit
, <>alled

and a
ialifax

law, whicli coimuitted thieves for execution to the
Halifax gibbet, wliicli was a kind of j^uillotine. Robo-
s[)i('rre proposed a decree which, in 1793, established
a Conunittee of General Security, exercising power
superior to the convention. To this was auxiliary
the Committee of Public Safety, of which Robespierre
likewise was a member.

An incident is mentioned by M. Hue, which hap-
])ened during his journey through the Chinese Empire
in ('(Hnpany with certain Catholic priests, whicli shows
how easily intimidated are the subordinates of arbitrary
j)ower by a counter display of like pretended power.
A Chinese Christian, Tchao by name, zealous in his re-
gard for the spiritual ftithers thus unexpectedly visit-
ing the country, sent the travellers a present of sonu'
(hied fruit, accompanied by a letter. A military man-
darin, overwhelmed with curiosity, secretly (opened
the package and attempted to read the letter, but
was cauLjlit in the act. The missionaries, who woi'o
travelling under protection of the emperor, clamoi-od
loudly over the insult. They demanded that Tchao,
whom the ])refect had ordered imprisoned as a dis-
turlier of the ])oace for having thus connnunicated
with the travellers, sliould be brought before them
for trial; and two foreigners, if we may credit their
stor}', did actually s(^ frighten the magistrates that
they yielded tlieii" place in the tribunal, and permitted
tlie missionaries to try and to acquit the prisoner.

England in Anglo-Saxon times found a necessity
the witena-geni<)t, or great national council, b}' which
the king's title must be recoijfnized and his acts rc^xu-
lated, and to which all courts of justice were subser-
vient. When abolished by William the Conqueror,
:'rs were transmitted to parliament

dy in p

Such are some of the prominent examples of liis-
tory which at various times, and by men not the n) jst
thoroughly familiar with the subject, have been cr n
pared with the modern Committee of Vigilance, which

0 ABERRATIONS OP JU8TICK.

in its liighcr aspect is the highest form of the popular
tribunal. If antiquity can furnish us no more perti-
nent illustrations than these, then we are safe in say-
ing that nothing exactly similar to our present popular
tribunal was known to the ancients. If nothing of
the kind can be found in Europe, then to America
must be given the honor or odium of it. In all the
cases cited there is something of government by fac-
tion, or of military rule, or of rebellion against the
powers that be, or of secret or open tribunals acting
iin<lor law, or of legally sanctioned aids to govern-
nu'ut, or of revolution, civil war, or highway robbery.
Xow whatever our popular tribunal may be, it is none
of these ; it has no such ingredients in its composition.
As we approach the time of Lynch and lynching,
we come nearer our present development, but we do
not quite reach it even then. As to the origin of
the term lyncli-law, opinion is divided. There was in
1493 a mayor of Galway, Ireland, named James Fitz-
stcphens Lynch. He w^as in the wine trade, and
received cargoes from Spain. Thither he once sent
his son with money to buy wine. The son squan-
dered the money, but purchased a cargo on credit.
A nepliew of the Spanish seller of the wine accom-
panied young Lynch on his i-eturn vo3''age, for the
purpose of receiving pay for the wine on reaching Ire-
land. To hide his defalcation, before reaching home
Lynch threw the Spaniard overboard. In time in-
formation of the son's crime reached the father's
eai The young man was tried and condemned, the
fat' er being judge. The family interfered to prevent
the execution; but the father, lest the ends of justice
sho. d be defeated, with his own hands hanged him
fron a window overlooking the street. Hence, as
some say, the term lynch-law. Others refer the honor
to tl 3 founder of Lynchburg, Virginia; yet others to
a Virginia farmer, named Lynch, who once whipped
a thief instead of delivering him to the sheriff. In
1687 one Judge Lynch, to suppress piracy which was

THE TERM LYNCH LAW. 7

ininiiiGf coinmorco in Aiuerican waters, is said to havo
cxrcutcd justice suininarily, resj^anlless of forms of
law. Another aceount makes Joh i Lyneli, a nativt^
of South Carohna, the judge. This man followed
Daniel Boone to Kentucky, where he was chosen
chief of twelve jurors to try causes infoi-mally.
Which, if any, of these accounts is correct is a
matter of small moment. What we are to undei'stand
at present hv the term is what chieily concerns us.
When the Piedmont country of Virginia was the
l)ackwoods of America, without law, summary excfcu-
tions were common; and the accident which applied the
term Lynch to illegal executions will never positively
]j(i known, 'w hatever else it was, in its original use it
was not a term of reproach, but a mark of the high
character and moral integrity of the people.

It was on the western frontier of the United States,
and during the last half century, that the popular
tribunal in its broadest proportions was reached. All
that time and before it, beginning just back of the
English plantations, this frontier had been shifting,
extending farther and farther to the westward, until
the valley of the Mississippi was reached. Upon this
I (order, as upon the edge of mighty fermentations,
accumulated the scum of the commr -^ ealth. The
si)irit of evil was ever strong, and government was
^\•oak. Societ}' there was low and brutal, and the
lyucliers were not always much better than the
lynched. After Missouri and Arkansas for a time
hiul constituted the frontier, a leap was made by
Mar niid western progress to California, and the pop-
ular tribunal, seemingly • purified by the passage,
settled upon the newly found gold-fields. Here,
at the Ultima Thule of western migration, the in-
stitution found itself in an element totally different
from any it had ever before enjoyed. The people
were active and able; many of them were educated
and intelligent; most of them were honest. But there

I'-

ll '

8 ABERRATIONS OF JUSTICE.

were some rogues present, else enginery for pun-
ishment had never been required. It was then that
the popular tribunal assumed respectability and took
a new name. The somewhat besmeared terms mob-
law, lynch-law, and the like, were discarded, and the
more pleasing titles of Regulators, Committee of
Safety, and Committee of Vigilance were adopted.

In Nevada, Utah, Montana, and Idaho, in all fron-
tier settlements, before the machinery of territorial
legislatures and law courts was in working order, be-
fore laws were framed or executed, a tribunal formed
of citizens was found necessary to prevent wholesale
robbery and murder. Order-loving men, as were they
who composed these tribunals, were backward enough
in assu . jng the unwelcome duties, usually taking no
steps to organize until after a score or two of mur-
derers had escaped punishment. Each new western
state, as it began to be settled, attracted thither vil-
lains of every dye, who kept the community in con-
stant fear until it purged itself by the swift and sure
executions of mobocracy or vigilance committees.

What then has the popular tribunal here become?
What is a vigilance committee, and what mobocracy ?
The terms vigilance committee, mob-law, lynch-law,
are not, as many suppose, S3aionymous. In some re-
spects they are diametrically opposed in principle and
in purpose. The vigilance conmiittee is not a mob;
it is to .0 mob as revolution is to i-ebellion, the name
being somewhat according to its strength. Neither
is a tumultuous rabble a vigilance committee. In-
deed, prominent among its other functions is that of"
holding brute force and vulgar sentiment in wholesome
fear. The vigilance committee will itself break the
law, but it does not allow others to do so. It has the
higliest respect for law, and would be friendly with the
law, notwithstanding the law is sometimes disposed to
l)e ill-natured; yet it has a higher respect for itself
than for ill-administered law. Often it has assisted

lis

VIGILANCE COMMITTEES AND MOBOCRACY. 9

officers of the law in catching offenders, and has even
gone so far as to hand insignificant and filthy crimi-
nals over to courts of justice for trial rather than soil
its lingers with them.

The doctrine of Vigilance, if I may so call the
idea or principle embodied in the term vigilance com-
mittee, is that the people, or a majority of them,
possess the right, nay, that it is their bounden duty,
to hold perpetual vigil in all matters relating to their
governance, to guard their laws with circumspection,
and sleeplessly to watch their servants chosen to exe-
cute them. Yet more is implied. Possessing this right,
and acknowledging the obligation, it is their further
right and duty, whenever they see misbehavior- on
the part of their servants, whenever they sec the
laws which they have made trampled upon, distorted,
or prostituted, to rise in their sovereign privilege and
remove such unfaithful servants, lawfully if possible,
arbitrarily if necessary. The law must govern, ab-
solutely, eternally, say the men of vigilance. Suffer
inconvenience, injustice if need be, rather than at
teni])t illegal reform. Every right-minded man
recognizes the necessity of good conduct in human
associations, to secure which experience teaches that
rule is essci>tial. In a free republican form of gov-
ciument every citizen contributes to the making ol
the laws, and is interested in seeing them executed and
obeyed. The good citizen, above all others, insists
tliiit the law oi the land shall Ije roi^arded. But to
havi! law, statutes must bo enacted by the people; gov-
I'liiiiicuts must be administered by representatives of
the people; officials, to be officials, must be chosen by
th(j ]»oople. Lav; is the voice of tlie ])eople. Now it
is not tlic voice of the people tliat vigilance would dis-
regard, ))ut the voice of corrupt officials and bad men.
Law is the will of the connnunity as a whole; it is
therefore omnipotent. When law is not omnipotent,
it is nothing. This is why, when law fails— that is to
say, when a power rises in society antagonistic at once

ABERRATIONS OF JUSTICE.

to statutory law and to the will of the people — the
people must crush the enemy of their law or be
crushed by it. A true vigilance committee is this
expression of power on the part of the people in the
absence or impotence of law. Omnipotence in rule
l)cing necessary, and law failing to be omnipotent, the
element here denominated vigilance becomes omnipo-
tent, not as a usurper, but as a friend in an emergency.
Vigilance recognizes fully the supremacy of law, flics
to its rescue when beaten down by its natural enemy,
crime, and lifts it up, that it may always be supreme;
and if the law must be broken to save the state,
then it breaks it soberly, conscientiously, and under
the formulas of law, not in a feeling of revenge, or
in a manner usual to the disorderly rabble.

Surely vigilance has no desire to liamper legislation,
to interfere with the machinery of courts, to meddle
in politics, to alter or overthrow the constitution, or
to usurp supreme authority. Its issue is with the
mal-administration of government, rather than witli
government itself Its object is to assist the law, to
see the lav/ righteously executed, to prevent perver-
sion of the law, to defeat prostitution of the law, and
not to subvert or debase the law. And to accomplish
its purpose, it claims the riglit to resort to unlawful
means, if necessary. Therefore it is easy to see that
the vigilance principle does not spring from disrespect
for law. Wherever law has been properly executed
there never yet was a vigilance committee. The
existence of a vigilance organization is a priori proof
of the absence of good government. No well-bal-
anced, impartial mind will condemn the existence of a
vigilance committee in the absence of properly exe-
cuted law; no rifjht-thinkinfj man will for a moment
countenance a vigilance organization, could such a
thing be, in the presence of good laws, well executed.

Thus defined, the principle of vigilance takes its
))laoe above formulated law, which is its creature, and
is directly antagonistic to the mobile spirit which

THE PRINCIPLE OF VIGILANCE.

)ple — the
\v or be
',e is this
pie in the
e in rule
otent, the
3 omnipo-
nergency.
' law, ilics
■al enemy,
supreme ;
the state,
md under
evenge, or

cgislation,
to meddle
itution, or
; with the
than with
:he law, to
snt pervcr-
le law, and
accomplish
,0 unlawful
to see that

I disrespect
y executed
ttee. Thf)
riori proof
o well-bal-
istence of a
iperly exe-

a moment
aid such a

II executed,
e takes its
■oature, and
pirit which

springs from passion and contemptuously regards all
law save the law of revenge. While claiming the full
right of revolution, it does not choose to use it, be-
cause it is satisfied with the existing forms of govern
ment. I do not like the term impermm in imperio, so
often applied to it. Vigilance is the guardian of the
government, rather than a government within a gov-
ernment. This, then, is vigilance; the exercise in-
formally of their rightful power by a people wholly
in sympathy with existing forms of law. It is the
same inexorable necessity of nature which civilization
formulates in statutes, codes, and constitutions under
the terms law and government, but acting unrestrict-
edly, absolute will being its only rule. The right is
claimed by virtue of sovereignty alone. Under nature
man is his own master. As God cannot make a being
superior to himself, so society cannot establish rules
for its convenience which the central power or ma-
jority of the people have not the right at any tim(3
or in any manner they see fit to disregard or annul.

Moreover, between the terms mob-violence or lyncli-
law and visrilance committees there is this further dis-
tinction: they are often one in appearance, thougli
never one in principle. Often the same necessities that
call forth one bring out the other ; though in execu-
tion one is as the keen knife in the hands of a skilful
surgeon, removing the putrefaction with the least pos-
sil)le injury to the body politic, the other the blunt
instrument of dull wits, producing frequent defeat and
disaster. The mobile spirit is displayed no more in a
i'es})octablc and well-organized committee of vigilance
than in a court of justice. There is no more resent-
ment, no more furious desire to destroy a hated object
in the one than in the other. Scrutinize as you will
the character and conduct of the higher of these tri-
bunals, and you fail to discover any of the elements
of an uncontrolled mob. Time enough they take for
elil)eration, tune enough for conscience and duty to
be fully heard; then, with the sacred })rinciples of truth

ABERRATIONS OF JUSTICE.

[

i! ■■

and justice before them, feeling that the eye of their
maker and of all mankind is upon them, their minds
oiade up, they act with cool, determinate courage.

Again, although vigilance and mobocracy have in
principle little in common, they are sometimes found
assuming much the same attitude toward law and
toward society. Both set up their will in opposition
to legally constituted authorities ; both break the law,
bid defiance to the law, and if it still stand in their
way, snap their fingers in the face of law. The ob-
ject of their members in associating is that they may
be stronger than the officers of the law; in the eyes
of the law both are equally criminal, both are banded
brawlers, murderers, traitors. Both tyrannize tyranny,
rule their rulers, and become a law unto themselves.
Yet tliere are these further differences between them :
(3ne aims to assist a weak entrammelled government,
whose officers cannot or will not execute the law; thi'
other breaks the law usually for evil purpose. One is
based upon principle, and the other upon passion. One
will not act in the heat of excitement; the other tlir<)\\s
deliberation ti:) the wind. One is an orsjanization offi-
cered by its most efficient members, aiming at public
woll-beini^, and actinc: under fixed rules of its own
making; the other is an unorganized rabble, acting
under momentary delirium, the tool, it may be, of
j)olitical demagogues, tlie victim of its own intemper-
ance. Underlying the actions of the one is justici;;
of the other revenge. This constitutes tlie difference,
and by this standard we may distinguish one from tlie
other; wherever we find a bodv of armed memlx)i-s
of the connnunity acting contrary to law or in opposi-
tion to officers of tlie law, be it composed of the best
citizens or the worst, be its existence a necessity, its
acts productive of social well-being, or otherwise, if it
is an organized band, acting under fixed rules, acting
with coolness and deliberation, with good intentions,
determined to promote rather than to defeat the
ends of justice, such a body is what upon the Pacific

I?-

THE EVILS OF MOB LAW

y^e of their
leir minds
3urage.
y have in
mcs found
I law and
opposition
\k the law,
id in their
The ob-
: they may
n the eyes
ire banded '
ie tyranny,
licmsclves.
t^een them :
3vernment,
le law; tlu'
se. One is
^sion. One
[her throws
zation ofti-
at public
)f its own
ble, actinin'
lav be, ot"
intem})er-
is justice;
difference,
e from tlie
memliei's
in opposi-
f the best
cessity, its
rwise, if it
es, acting
ntentions,
lefeat the
he Pacific

Coast has become to be known as a Committee of
Vio-ilance. Though it may have tiie same object in
view, and though it may accomplish the same results,
if the body or association be not organized or offi-
cered, if it be without constitution, by-laws, rule, or
regvdation, acting under momentary excitement or in
the heat of passion, careless of the administration of
justice, swayed only by resentment, intent on making
a (lis)ilay, infuriate, unreasonable, vengeful, it is a
mob, though composed of doctors of divinity.

It was interesting to note when President Garfield
was assassinated how many staid, respectable citizens,
how many officers of the government, how many
women and clergymen, were in favor of taking Guiteau
from prison and tearing him in pieces. That was the
spirit of mobocracy, a spirit which the true vigilance
committee frowns on and is the first to put down.

Thus we see that in this display of the arbitrary ad-
ministration of justice, where some indeed may think
they perceive the morto 2>opolarmente of Machiavelli,
there are many aspects, not all alike commendable
or condemnable. In its highest and most perfect
state, its object is to preserve the sanctity of morals,
and to vindicate the supremacy of law by the over-
throw of lawless law-makers and legally appointed
official swindlers, together with the just punishment,
after dispassionate examination, of felons who were
shielded rather than jiunished by the subverting and
inefficient execution of the law. From this higli moral
standpoint the modern popular tribunal descends
in its severalities through every grade of mingled
equity and imposition, until in its consequences it
sometimes sinks into the fostering and extenuating of
mob-violence, the prostituting of public morals, dis-
respect for statutory law and stable forms of gov-
ernment, into popular rather than just prosecutions,
informal and unfair convictions, barbarous butcheries
and public assassinations, and an ever increasing
thirst for the blood of victims — in a word, into tho

ABERRATIOXS OF JUSTICE.

lowest forms of mobocracy. Such are some of the
differences between ii telligent and high-minded vigi-
lance organizations, whose acts have been carefully
considered and conscientiously performed, and the
blood-drunken orgies of frontier lynch-law executions.

The Englishman Wyse, writing of America in
1 84G, failed to discover in the highest and purest pop-
ular tribunal aught else than the preposterous claim
of the low, ignorant, and irresponsible rabble to the
control of the government. This is scarcely to be
wondered at when we see how easily even error and
injustice become things too sacred to be tampered
with when enshrined in law. There are few instances
in Amer'ca where a mob has sought to usurp the go\-
ernment.

ivir Wyse does not state the case fa'"ly. A mol)
composed of a majority of the people, as he puts it,
is not a mob. I say, a majority of the respectable,
intelligent, order-loving, and law-making portion of
the people is not the mobile vulgus, or movable com-
mon people, by which name from time immemorial a
disorderly crowd convened for riotous purpose has
been known. Nor did I ever hear of a riotous major-
ity of any people claiming the right to overthrow their
own laws for evil purpose, and wage illegal waifare
against themselves and to their own destruction.
Mobs are not composed of individuals calmly asso-
ciating foi' the purpose of self-sacrifice for the benefit
of the. community, but rather for those who would
sacrifice the cormiunity for self. Government under
the banners of liberty and progress is as strong as
the people constituting it, and never by any possi-
bility can it be stronger until the people go back to
their ancient superstition. The government of the
United States, in its fundamental principles, Mr
Wyse calls weak, because founded on the vacil-
lating will of the people. This is fallacy. Only the
strong and intelligent can live together under a
so-called weak government. In becoming strong and

LAW REFORM NECESSARY.

me of the

nded vigi-

i carefully

and the

xecutions.

merica in

urest pop-

'ous claim

ble to the

;ely to be

error and

tampered

instances

) the gov-

A mol>
e puts it,
spectable,
)ortion of
able com-
emorial a
pose has
us major-
row their
1 waifaro
truction.
nly asso-
e benefit
10 would
nt undei-
trong as
ly possi-
back to
t of the
►les, Mr
le vacil-
3nly the
under a
ong and

intelligent, men invariably emancipate themselves
from the tyrannies of form. I fail to perceive how a
government, whose principles are deep-rooted in the
hearts of strong men, can be inherently weaker than
one overawed by ancient superstitions. The mobs
and riots of old countries are usually for the attain-
ment of some real or imaginary right denied the
people by their rulers; those of new communities
spring mainly from the failure of rulers to execute
tlie laws. Particularly has this been the case on
the frontier of the United States, although wran-
glings over African slavery and free-love religion
have sometimes been attended by riotous demonstra-
tions. As a rule, however, the people of the great
republic are and have been satisfied with their laws,
and only wish to see them properly enforced. After
a senseless tirade against the United States, "in
wliose social and political system were deep-seated
and early sown the seeds of angry discord, of turbu-
lence and crime," Mr Wyse admits "that there may
be some excuse, in the absence of law, for men to adopt
some rule for their own preservation," which is all the
right ever claimed by our system of vigilance. And
these of our own people who cry against vigilance
oonimittees and call them mobs, their members rioters
and insurrectionists, their acts rabble justice, and their
executions murder, were it not better they should
tiini their attention to the root of the matter and rec-
ti ty the necessity that engenders them? Strip from
law its trammels, its hypocrisy, humbug, and technical
(;liicauery, and mete the evil-doer quick and certain
punishment, and the sombre shadow of vigilance will
no move darken our portals. It is a standing reproach,
both to tlic intelligence and to the integrity of our law-
makers and our law-ministers, that a moneyed criminal,
by extra-judicial strategy on the part of hired advo-
cates, and a species of legal legerdemain, can so suc-
cessfully thwart justice and escape punishment.
Before there can be any step taken toward moral

1ft

ABERRATIONS OF JUSTICE.

reform, the moral sense of the community must be
awakened. Seldom is the moral sense raised against

• • •

a bad man, even, until he commits some crime such as
the law takes cognizance of and openly jioints out as
bad. To detect crime without the aid of laAv must
be yet more difficult. What shall we say then, what
must be the state of things, the provocation, when in
a community of law-loving men not given to j^rudisJi-
ness in morals, not given to jealousy of their lulers,
dormant moral sense is so roused as to single out crime,
and to seize and strangle it despite of awe-inspiring
law, and in direct antagonism to officers of the law?
Here we see law restraining law-makers in their vir-
tuous eftbrts and shielding the lawless. This inter-
ference of government in personal affairs, protecting
a man against himself while failing to protect liim
against others, is one of the anomalies of our political
system.

It is to the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of
185G, as distinguished from any other popular up-
rising in California or elsewhere, that the principle of
vigilance owes its incarnation and recognition; for it
is a recognized principle on these Pacific shores, if
nowhere else ; it is here a common law of the land. Its
existence as a principle is due to that occasion, though
its origin was elsewhere, because the leaders of that
movement first raised it to and recognised it as a prin-
ci})le. Law-breakers and law-exterminators there have
been many; but never before in the history of human
progress liave we seen, under a popular form of gov-
ernment, a city-full rise as one man, summoned by
almighty conscience, attend at the bedside of sick law
as J laving a right there, and perform a speedy and
almost bloodless cure, despite the struggles of the
exasperated patient.

There have not been wanting those of extreme
views to come forward and claim, even, that to this
movement of 185G jurisprudence owes a new principle,
morality a new standard, and mind a new departure.

must be
1 against
0 such as
;s out as
a.w must
en, what
when in
]>fudish-
ir rulers,
ut crime,
inspiring
the law^
:heir vir-
us inter-
rotecting
tect liim
poHtical

iiittee of

ular up-

nciple of

n; for it

lores, if

md. Its

though

of that

ls a prin-

ere have

human

of ijrov-

oned by

sick law

cdy and

of the

extreme
to this
rinciple,
parture.

IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 17

If in the forces regulating human activities the move-
ment means anything, it points significantly to a nioral
and beneficial human power superior to the power form-
ulated and restricted by constitutions and statutes.
If the movement means anything, if it accomplished
anything, if its results remain to-day treasured in the
storehouse of valuable experiences, it points signifi-
cantly to a morality superior to that of fashion, and
to the freeing of mind from another of its fetters. In
social ethics room must be made for the principle of
vi^i-ilance, and governments must be taught to recog-
iiizo it. So some believe ; but it is the tendency of the
undisciplined mind to fall into excess. The principle
is always existent, in greater or less degree, in all \n'o-
gressive peoples; its presence here in higher and holier
])roportions than ever elsewhere displayed is all we
can justly claim for it.

Memphis, Tennessee, with its men of mighty beards,
of cowhide boots and bowie-knives, was once famous
as a boat-landing where captains stopped to hang
offending travellers. In South Carolina many years
ago the colonists rose and drove out the unprincipled
Seth Sothel, who had misruled them for six years.
Texas had its Regulators and Moderators, corre-
sponding somewhat remotely to our Vigilance Com-
mittee, and Law and Order party, and in the country
adjacent to the Sabine River, between 1838 and 1841,
they often met in deadly encounter. Kangaroo courts
is a later name for the lynching tribunals of this
quarter, so designated from the attitude in which the
judges fling themselves upon the grass round the
culpi-it.

During the days of boat-and-mule transit crime was
prevalent on the Panamjl Isthmus. On the robbery
of a specie train, in September, 1851, the people of
Panamil declared strongly in fixvor of a vigilance
committee organization for the purpose of clearing
the Isthmus of highwaymen.

Pop. TniB., Vol. I. 2

ABERRATIONS OF JUSTICE.

In the early days of June, 1858, a vigilance com-
mittee was organized in the city of New Orleans, a
disturbed and revolutionary condition of society, simi-
lar to that which prevailed in San Francisco in the
memorable era of 1856, seeming to render the move-
ment necessary. The municipal offices were in the
hands of corrupt and unscrupulous politicians, and
ruffians ruled the day. An allopathic dose of vigi-
lance was undoubtedly demanded by the exigency of
the case, and the citizens undertook to administer it
after the swift and bloody formula that had been
adopted by the young city at the Golden Gate. The
affair struck the citizens of so old a society as New Or-
leans with alarm, and for a time excitement ran high.
After some manoeuvring the mayor surrendered con-
trol of affairs into the hands of the committee, but for
some reason the organization failed to work any material
good to the community. The movement was charged
upon the American party as a political stratagem — at
any rate, after a few days of feverish uncertainty the
committee disbanded without having performed any
labor further than forcing the mayor to swear in the
members of the committee as an extra police force. The
city election transpired on the 7th of June, and the
result did not seem to indicate that the Vigilants, as
I shall take the liberty of calling the men of vigilance,
were sustained by the people.

The Spaniards in Mexico knew little of popular tri-
bunals, breaking the law for their own benefit almost
at pleasure in early times, and later plotting the
downfall of the existing government rather than rally-
ing to its aid. British Columbia has witnessed few
unlawful demonstrations on the part of the people,
law always having been strong on the Fraser, and pun-
ishment sure. Other British colonies have not been
so fortunate.

Notwithstanding the well-organized colonial go\-
ernment existing previous to and at the time of the
discovery of gold in Australia, lynch-law was soon ram-

VIGILANCE IN AUSTRALIA.

11)

pant in the Victoria gold-fields, which at first were
beyond the immediate influence of the government.
The same cau.scs led to the reign of terror there, as
Chief Justice A'Beckett called it, that are found in
most new settlements — laxity of law and inexorable
necessity. With uplifted hands and horror-stricken
visage, the English immigrant, having in reverence the
wigs and woolsacks of his native island, cries: "God
forbid that I should so profane the law." Yet when
his cabin is robbed, and there is no minister of justice
at hand, he soon learns to catch and hang a thief with
as hearty a good will as ever bushman struck boar.

A vigilance committee organized at Sydney, in
order to avoid the stigma attached to the term in
motlier countries, proposed to call the associati>^u
the Private Watch. This euphemism, adopted for
the benefit of sensitive conservatives, did not mei;t
the approval of the community. Here is what the
Peoples Advocate of New South Wales says of it,
February 19, 1853:

Don ram-

" Wo would recommcud the good-hearted fellows who are starting this
movement to take the name which has already acquired for its cfEcicncy !i
world-wide celebrity ; ii name which lias thoroughly purged a great country
of its imported vagabonds, and struck terror into the hearts of ruffians who
liad braved the tyrainiy of penal settlements and every punishnieut which the
law could suggest. There is a meanuig attached to the name of the vigilauci-
committee which will carry some weight with it when the Private Watcli
would be looked upon with contemptuous, ridicule. It is unnecessary to remind
people of the origin of the vigilance committee ; the whole world knows it, l)ut
of its ellects few people are fully aware who have not been in California. Botli
before its appointment and after its suspension midnight murderers paraded
the streets iu defiance of the law. Fire-raising was held to be an almost un-
punisliablo offence, because of the difficulty of its detection and the wcakiu'ss
of the ann of constituted authority. It was one of the subsidiary stratagems
of the Van Dieman's Land and Sydney thieves. Gambling-houses were kept
open at all hours of the night ; no hand was uplifted, no voice raised to smite
their iniquity. The foul toadstools were suffered, un trampled upon, to pollute
society with their pestilential presence, until they became not only hideous
deformities, whicli gambling-houses under any restriction must be, but until
their iniquity became so great that they were the avowed and recognized
harbors of refuge for murderers, robbers, thieves, and every vicious wretch
who chose to avail himself of their sanctuary. Constables were defied ; every

ABERRATIONS OF JUSTICK.

attcnii)t to supprcsa tho common villainy by ordinary means failed. Ncces-
aity for mutual protection had at length rccuurso to tho memorable expedient
of appointing among themsclvea a committee of the citizens to detect and
punish crime ; and these men, taking to tliemselvca tho memorable name of
vigilance committee, almost instantaneously cnislied tho atrocious hydra.
Tl\c very name of that committee terrified tho ruffians who previously
triumphed over society. Their haunts wer*? broken up, their infamous organi-
zation was prostrated, and peace at once restored by tho expulsion of tliu
scoundrels who an: now in Sydney, and agauiat whom we arc culled upon to
act. Robberies of the person are becoming frightfully prevalent, and detec-
tion extremely rare; life and property are without protection of any kind,
and tlio whole city is at tho mercy of numerous bands of experienced thieves
and cutthroats. Under such a fearful state of disorder, it behooves tho citi-
zens to bestir themselves ; for if they do not protect themselves, tliero appears
to bo no disposition on tho part of tho Executive to do anything in their
behalf. It boa therefore become imperative on the inhabitants to organize a
vigilance committee for the city. Small bands of volunteers, armed witii
revolvers, will purge Sydney of her miscreants. Wo have no hesitation in
saying that within a month every villain now at large would be lodged in
gaol, or otherwise disposed of so as to be no longer an object of fear or a
source of alarm. A vigilance committee for Sydney will be not only necos-
sary, bat e£fectual, and its very name will strike where its arm cannot reach."

Thus in new and intelligent communities, whence-
soever their origin and wheresoever situated, we see
appearing, as it is needed, this principle of Vigilance,
which like a benignant deity delivers its votaries from
evil and destruction.

CHAPTER II.

POPULAR TRIBT7NALS AND POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

VigiLmtibus, non dormientibus, servit lex.

Op all the classical abnormities that characterized
the gold-gathering age of California, popular tribu-
nals \ '^cre the most startling. As long as the aberra-
tions of society were confined to individual members,
or appeared only in business, religious, or domestic
affairs; as long as causations were easily traced and
results tacitly accepted, social and commercial irregu-
larities, such as undue dissipation, suicide, fires and
failures, speculation, gambling, and gold-digging, soon
l)ecamo to be regarded as part of the new economy
incident to the new life and its strange environment.
Even a murder, now and then, or in the mines a hang-
ing scrape, was not an object of alarm. Every man
carried a pistol; whiskey was fiery; shooting was easy;
and it was no wonder that now and then a man was
hurt.

But when crime assumed giant proportions, over-
shadowing commerce, intercourse, and industry, and
when the whole community rose as one man to put
it down, the attitude of affairs &eemed somewhat
alannint;'. What was it, this mighty power so sud-
denly ap|joaring at this juncture? In our indifference
to tradition, and our wanderings from ancient ways,
we had cut loose from many of the fashions and for-
malities which we had been taught were essential to
safety. But here was something that seemed to
strike at the very foundation of our social structure,

(21)

22 POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

and which mast shiver the fair proportions of that
free government which all along the centuries man-
kind had been chiselling into form and comeliness.
Were we prepared to try anarchical experiments, to
throw our young communities into a state of social
chaos, and abide the result? Might not so sweeping a
principle bring perdition?

Many thought of these things who never thought
before. Many asked for the first time : What is law,
what government? Are our forms, our constitutions,
our statute-books, and our tribunals, however en-
tangled they may become, are they too sacred for pop-
ular touch? Or if, through our own folly or neglect,
the administration of laws, with the construction and
intention of which we are content, falls on incapable,
unjust, or iniquitous men; and if these men, for their
further enrichment or advancement, weave round
themselves such a web of legal technicalities and
statutory subtleties as with perjuries, ballot-box stuff-
ings, and assistant hirelings to secure them in their
positions, must good citizens forever refrain from lay-
ing hands on these Lord's Anointed ?

There are men high in intellect and education, who
hold that a law once formally made by the people, can-
not rightly be altered or disregarded by the people
except through legislative process. In the law itself,
and in the creating of it, tlicy say, is the tacit agreement
of the people that they will not override or overrule
it but by formulas similar to those that brought it
into force. They make a law for the punishment of
those who break a law. All must abide by the com-
pact, no matter what the injustice or emergency.
It were sacrilege otherwise. And yet these same
persons will tell you that the people are supreme.

Now if the people are supreme, they cannot cre-
ate a power superior to thomselvcs and still remain
supreme. They cannot bind themselves to one an-
other in fetters so strong that all together, or the

THE JURIST AND THE DIVINE.

ruling majority, cannot instantly break them. If the
Almighty establishes an edict or enters into a com-
pact which he cannot immediately annul, he is no longer
almighty. It may be righteousness that rules him,
but he is ruled. However this may be, all the su-
preme powers we are cognizant of make and break
at pleasure.

Ask a jurist if it be right ever under any circum-
stances to break a law, and turning from his book he
will answer you, " I find it nowhere so written." Ask
him if statutes and constitutions are superior to nature
and necessity, and the reply is, " The law of the land
shall stand forever, or until it be legally annulled or
changed ; else there is no security, no safety, nor hap-
pini«s or progress; else all is confusion, chaos, a whirl
of anarchy and annihilation. Atoms cannot hold to-
gether without law; no more can individuals." With
lieart and mind still unsatisfied, in your conscientious
distress to know the truth, go to the divine, to him
who represents the power behind human forms, and
]>ut the question; and he reads you likewise from his
hook, " Be subject unto the higher powers ; the powers
that be are ordained of God." Ask him if the powers
for evil are ordained of God, and he stands before you
<Uniib with indignant astonishment at your unhallowed
impudence. Now v/e 'iio people, who are neither
.juiist nor divine, avo world say that if Ned McGowan,
Murray, Terry, and others v/itli whom in due time I
will make the reader acquainted, were ministers of
justice orda'ned of God, then God ordained some very
l)ad men judges in California, and happily he ordained
a ])eoplc to rise and drive them out. " I know of no
higher power than the constitution of my country,"
exr\ IS John B. Weller in a burst of anti-vigilauco
patriotism — which was unfortunate for Mr Wclior.
The constitution is a very good thing, an implement
by wliich to regulate delegated social force, for which
I entertain profound respect, and before \\1 ich I am

POPULAll GOVERNMENT.

prepared to bow in company with all good men who
thus recognize the necessity of yielding some portion
of their individual will for the benefit of the whole.
I respect likewise the steam-engine that carries mo
ten miles more quickly than I can walk one. That
the people can create a power higher than themselves
is a palpable absurdity, which it is idle to discuss.

Ask a jurist his opinion of vigilance committees, of
the morality of such movements, more particularly
of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856,
that being the representative organization of popular
tribunals in the Pacific States and the only one
of which there is much general knowledge, and the
answer will be: "Had the people been as ready to
assist the law as they were to disregard it, there would
have been no necessity for a committee of vigilance."
Ask him if, with venal judges, knavish custodians of
public prisons, and an atmosphere rank with political
corruption pervading courts of justice, it were possible
for the people to assist law to the successful punisli-
ment of crime, and the answer will be: "Had they done
their duty at primaries, at the polls, as jui'or.s, as citizens
of the commonwealth, there would have been no cor-
rupt officials or foul political airs." Press him further,
and ask if, with shoulder-strikers reigning in every
ward, with ballot-box stuffers ruling elections, with
professionals as jurors, witnesses, and bondsmen, and
ma<jcistrates who feared the roiinfhs far more than God
or good men, it were possible for the people to do fair
duty as citizens, and the answer will be: " It was their
own fault, and by reason of their neglect of duty alone
that all these evils had come upon them." Pump until
doomsday and this is all we shall get from the deep-
est wells of leti'al or religious lore.

A century or two ago and this would have been
sufficient, but it is not so now. We cannot but feel,
though in the presence of august book-magnates who
have garnered the experience of the ages, and upon
whom has fallen the spirit of omnipotent intelligeni'o,

THE PEOPLE AT FAULT.

nen who
; portion
le whole,
brries me
e. That
emselves
cuss,
ittees, of
rticularly
of 1856,
f popular
only one
, and the
ready to
ere would
igilance."
;odians of

I political
■e possible
d punisli-
they done
IS citizens

n no cor-

II further,

in every

ons, with

men, au<l

han God

to do fair
was their
uty alone
Limp until
;he deep-

ave been
but feel,
ates who
md upon
elligeii'v,

-A—

that we mean one thing while they refer to another.
We cannot but feel that these our teachers are either
stupidly or wilfully olind; that either they will not
see the new light which renders transparent the old
tricks of bigotry, or, beholding, they can only stop and
stutter. Instead of answering they evade the ques-
tion, just as in the practice of their profession they
too often feel in duty bound to prefer jugglery before
justice.

The time has come when the instructors of pro-
gressive peoples must fortify their time-honored posi-
tions or abandon them. Thoughtful men are no longer
satisfied with artificial enlargements, thick-soled shoes,
and cunningly contrived masks, such as the Greek
actors employed in increasing their stature and the
volume of their voice.

The gods themselves once so complained. When
ancient rationalists first questioned the existence of
the Olympian deities, Jupiter was in heroics; heaven
shook with his wrath. "Men are actually discussing,"
he roared, "whether they shall hereafter worship at
all." "It is all your own fault!" exclaimed Momus,
the jester of the Olympian conclave; "the gods have
brouu^it the trouble on themselves throu<?h a negjlect
«if the;-' <!uties." And Momus is rioht. For a lyiiiu'
])re:s-i, ior iniquitous politicians and an ignorant pulpit,
I' r «"lit: ;d>surdities of fashion and the injustice of
--tnciy, .0]' prostitutioL, for gambling, for thieving,
tor th k' uveries of the scheming capitalist, the
giiudiugs of monopolists, and the swindlings of corpo-
rations, the people have only themselves to blame, for
all those enormities spring from the people and exist
only on the sufferance of the people. And as he is
as lawless who disvegards law as he who overthrows it,
s(^ ho is as immoral who fails in his political duty as
';. who breaks some social conventionality. It is a
J ' •'non and foolish fashion to denounce government
i'v) vils rooted in the people.

1 admit that the people of San Francisco did not

POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

their whole duty as citizens; that, absorbed in their
money-gettings and careless of the city's future, they
avoided the polls and shirked public responsibility.

But this is not the question. Americans and
others, both before and since the time of which I
write, have been guilty of like neglect. Adulterated
as has been the stream of our progress by enfranchis-
ing low foreigners and white-washing ignorant Afri-
cans ; prostituted as are our politics by charlatans and
demago ^^p, both native and imported, the polls and
public dut er few attractions to one whose pride
is enlightent liberty alone, and who abhors villainy
even when found under the guise of patriotism. The
deep abasement of our once so highly prized preroga-
tives, however, offers no excuse for the neglect of
distasteful duty. That the wicked rule is reason all
the more that the righteous should rally.

Yet another cause existed of the indifference in
public affairs manifested by the people of San Fran-
cisco during the city's infancy, which was the feverish
and unstable character of the community. It is safe
to say that prior to 1855 one fourth of the resident
population of San Francisco changed every year ; and
that of those constitutinof the Vijjilance Committee
of 185G, not one in ten had belonged to the Com-
mittee of 1851. People were constantly coming and
going, settling and selling out. AH was confusion;
few thought of or cared for the welfare of the young
metropolis. Hence, if the way to determine the right
or wrong of the action of the people of San Francisco
who in 1856 organized themselves a popular tribunal
above and independent of law be in casting blame
on some one, on whom shall it rest? On those who
wintered there in 1853 or 1855, or on those who hap-
pened to be citizens in 185G?

Again, men will not display the same zeal and
activity in public as in private affairs, at least until
public affairs are conducted more as are private affairs.
They will not volunteer as readily and persevere as

FALLACIOUS TEACHINGS.

in their
Lire, tliey
bility.
3ans and
which I
ulterated
ifranchis-
ant Afri-
itans and
polls and
ose pride
s villainy
im. The

preroga-
eijlect of
'eason all

3rence in
Ian Fran-
feverish
It is safe
resident
ear; and
)mmittee
le Com-
ning and
onfusion;
le young
the right
t^rancisco
tribunal
|ig blame
lose who
ivho hap-

zeal and
ast until
he affairs,
icvere as

faithfully when called to assist the authorities, as when
acting independently under their own organization.
We are all of us so constituted that in order to accom-
plish anything well there must be enthusiasm. This
absent, and man is but a machine, and a very poor
one. It was hardly to be expected that the workers
of San Francisco would leave with alacrity their
shops, their benches, their banks, and their counting-
houses to perform duties which they had already
paid public servants to do. More particularly would
this feeling prevai i :n the absence of confidence that,
when they had spent their time and money in the
public service, in hunting criminals and delivering
them to the authorities, speedy and impartial justice
would be meted. Action springs from anticipation
of success; enthusiasm languishes under repeated
disappointments.

But what kind of logic is this of our masters?
Whoever before thought of determining public policy
by flinging odium on generations gone by? For such
were the rapidly revolving years of this pregnant
epoch, each a generation, if counted by changes and
events. It is as if the shipwrecked mariner imploi'ing
assistance from the shore should be told : " Had you
not put to sea in a leaky vessel you would not now
need help;" or as if a physician called to administer
to a blek person should answer: "Had your grand-
laiher obeyed the laws of nature you would have no
need of medicine." The question was not what might
have been done under other circumstances, but what
should these citizens of San Francisco do now ; what
was right for them to do, who by reason of their own
fault, or the fault of those who had been citizens be-
fore them, had come to political grief, and now saw
crime grinning destruction upon them.

What says society in other exigencies where the
law is impotent or wilfully neglectful ? How stands
the matter in regard to the husband who slays the
destroyer of his wife's honor, or the father who kills

POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

the betrayer of his child? They break the law; the
law frowns; but there is not a court in America that
will capitally convict them. They do murder; but no
jury will adjudge them to death, and no judge dare
do it. Acting as we do, we might as well look this
subject squarely in the face, and then acknowledge,
like men, that there is a power, omnipresent, behind
and above law, and of which legal forms are but the
imperfect expression. This does not degrade law, and
is no attempt to abrogate it. The law is the imple-
ment of the supreme power for the accomplishment
of a purpose. If it works well, it is for the benefit of
the people ; if ill, it must be repaired or thrown aside.
If this can be done formally, by edicts, legislative
enactments, sheriffs, judges, and the like, so much the
better; if not, then the ultimate power must do it in-
formally, and in its own way. It is perhaps too great
a strain on human nature to expect those who live
by the law to admit that under any circumstances
the law may rightly be broken. What do we say of
the man who makes his rule of conduct in life his
master and not his servant? That he is a stubborn
dolt. So we may likewise say of the people who
write their laws in ink so indelible that it is beyond
their power to erase them. They are the slaves of
their superstition, the idolaters of the calf which they
have made.

In all this I am far from advocating vigilance as a
substitute for law. Vigilance is the law's mentor as
well as the law's master. It does not wish to over-
throw the law, else it is not vigilance, but revolution.
To our learned friends upon the bench we might re-
verse their standing argument, and with ftir more
propriety and pertinency say, if law and government
were what they should be, there would never be a
vigilance committee. That we may need it no more
is the prayer of all good citizens.

There are others whose teachings are worthy our
attention. Saint Paul says: "We know that the

SOME WORDS OF STRONG MEN.

le law; the
merica that
der; but no
judge dare
11 look this
knowledge,
3nt, behind
ire but the
de law, and
I the imple-
uplishment
e benefit of
rown aside.

legislative
o much the
ist do it in-
)S too groat
le who live
cumstances
) we say of

in life Jiis
a stubborn
eople who

is beyond

slaves (if

which tliev

ilance as a
mentor as
;h to over-
revolution,
might i-e-
far more
overnment
lever be a
t no more

v^orthy our
that the

law is good if a man use it lawfully." Plutarch
finds the truth in "following the most ancient law of
nature, which makes the weak obey the strong, begin-
ning with God and ending with the irrational part of
creation ; for these are taught by nature to use the ad-
vrtiitagfes which their strength gives them over the
weak." Blackstone teaches that "no human laws are
of any validity if contrary to the law of nature; and
sucli of them as are valid derive all their force and all
tlu'ir authority mediately or immediately from this
(iriginal." Even Machiavelli, prince of princes' ser-
vants, is not far behind the rest when he writes:
"Perche, cosi come gli buoni costumi, per mantenersi,
hanno bisogno delle leggi; cosi le leggi, per osservarsi,
hanno bisogno de' buoni costumi." And Favart
observes: "Tout citoyen est roi sous un roi citoyen."
But strongest of all from him best capable of telling
us the truth. "Let men learn that a legislature is not
our God upon earth," says Herbert Spencer, "though,
l^y the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they
expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let
them learn rather that it is an institution servino- a
purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not
stolen, is at the best borrowed. . . . Nay, indeed, have
we not seen that government is essentially immoral?
Is it not the offspring of evil, bearing about it all the
marks of its parentage ? Does it not exist because crime
exists? Is it not strong, or as we say, despotic, when
crime is great? Is there not more liberty, that is, less
government, as crime diminishes? And must not gov-
ernment cease when crime ceases, for very lack of
ol)jects on which to perform its function? Not only
does magisterial power exist because of evil, but it
exists by evil. Violence is employed to maintain it;
and all violence involves criminality. Soldiers, police-
men, and gaolers; sv/ords, batons, and fetters, are in-
struments for inflicting pain; and all infliction of pain
is in the abstract wrong. The state employs evil
weapons to subjugate evil, and is alike contammated

POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

by the objects with which it deals and the means by
which it works. MoraKty cannot recognize it; for
morahty, being simply a statement of the perfect
law, can give no countenance to anything growing
out of, and living by, breaches of that law." To
which Charles Nordhoff adds his weight in these per-
tinent words: "Back of all laws and all authority
must lie a belief that in the last resort every citizen
will defend his own rights. You cannot put a cor-
poral's guard at every man's door. The thief or
robber at bottom never fears the law and the govern-
ment nearly as much as he does the right arm and
courage of the man he seeks to injure." What says
the corner-stone of liberty, our own Declaration of
Independence? "To secure these rights, governments
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed; that, whenever
any form of government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to
abolish it, and to institute a new government."
Likewise the preamble to the Massachusetts con-
stitution in 1780: "Whenever these great objects,"
namely, liberty and the protection of the body politic
in its natural rights, "are not obtained, the people
have a right to alter the government, and to take
measures necessary for their safety, prosperity, and
happiness." So it is elsewhere fifty times maintained.
Indeed, it is not the right to alter, but the method of
doing it, that is questioned.

Let us take a look at this thing called law; not
alone at the laws made by men for their own govern-
ance, and by virtue of which act, were there no other,
their superiority over all material things is manifest,
but at that subtle force everywhere apparent. It is
not .necessary to go to sheep-bound books to find out
law. Statutes are form rather than force, or at best
force formulated.

The Ionic philosophers saw one only all-pervading

WHAT IS LAW?

e means by
nize it; for
the perfect
ng growing
law." To
1 these per-
l authority
»^ery citizen
put a cor-
le thief or
the govern-
lit arm and
What says
ilaration of
Dvcrnments
just powers
, whenever
ve of these
liter or to
vernment,"
isetts con-
t objects,"
ody politic
the people
to take
erity, and
aintained.
method of

law; not
n govern-
no other,
manifest,
nt. It is
) find out
)r at best

lervading

principle in nature, though personified in the minds of
some by one element, and in the minds of others by
another. Thus Thales thought it water, Anaxagoras
atoms, Anaximenes air, Heraclitos fire. Science and
religion now go behind all these ai.'! call this prin-
ciple law; the one under title of the forces of nature,
the other under that of the will of God. But whatever
it is, science and religion see it, feel it, and believe
in the same thing, though they call it by different
names and numberless sub-names. We feel Gotl in
nature and in ourselves; as the blind child, feeling
with its fingers the lineaments of the face it loves,
reads thus the secrets of the heart behind it. Up-
permost in the mind of the jurist are the written
rules for the regulation of human societies; in the
mind of the moralist the unwritten rules; the broader
conceptions of the scientist refer mankind as well as
nature to fixed laws. "Les lois," says Montesquieu,
"dans la signification la plus etendue, sont les rapports
necessaires qui derivent de la nature des choses; et
dans ce sens, tons les etres ont leurs lois; la divinitd
a scs lois, le monde materiel a ses lois, les intelligences
superieurs il I'homme ont leur lois, les betes ont leurs
lois, T'lomme a ses lois."

But when thus or otherwise defined, we are as far
as ever from knowing what law is. A reliofionist like
Hooker places the seat of law in the bosom of God,
wlio chooses himself to be influenced by the laws
which he establishes; whence arise law-worship and
disputes of various kinds. The law of nature, in its
requirements and punishments, is the same whether
it comes to us through our senses and our reason, or
through pretended revelation. All that the most in-
spired can do is to throw it into the same category
with all unknowable phenomena, and there for the
present leave it. Speculate as we will, the cogito,
ergo sum of philosophy is our bound.

We know that it is, and we know of it little else.
Law is everywhere. Sit in your house, there rise

POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

rouDcl you the unwritten obligations between husband
and wife, parents and children, master and servant.
Go out upon the street, and at every turn you en-
counter some one of the thousand rules which regu-
late man's intercourse with man. There arc laws oC
health, of business, of fashion, of pleasure. Out upon
the sea, out in the wilderness; all things animate
and inanimate, all things terrestrial and celestial, all
things palpaple and impalpable, are under dominion of
law. By law worlds whirl and atoms are held in
place. By law suns shine, mountains stand, and seas
yield their moisture. By law wands blow", rains fall,
flowers bloom, birds fly, fishes swim, beasts growl,
and man murders. Under law all that is strong and
dreadful lies bound. Law flings lightning about the
heavens, cracks the thunder-cloud, melts the shrouds
of winter, and swells the buds of spring. From
molecule to planet, from invisible mist-particle to the
mighty main, from the breath of sleeping infant to
the roaring tempest, all observe order, office, place,
and form. Even the apparently erratic affairs of
men, which until recently were regarded as under
the immediate governance of free and reasoning in-
telligence, are now, for the most part, referred to
laws as the mainspring of their guidance. That most
subtile of inspirations, the mind of man, we now per-
ceive to be balanced by law. The animate and rational
is subservient to the seemingly inanimate and irra-
tional, and by obedience to these laws creatures and
things alone exist.

Neither is it alone force, but as it would seem
intelligent force that rules this universe. The crystal
forms not by the laws of the granite, nor the granite
by the laws of the crystal. The plant grows not as
the river grows, nor is man made as the mountain is
made. Each after its kind fulfils its law. Call it by
what name you will, abstract spiritual agenc}^ cosmo-
mechanical energy, nature or deity, its inscrutible
sympathies and antipathies are manifested no less in

NATURE'S LAWS.

en husband
id servant,
[•n you eu-
»^liich rcgu
arc laws of
Out upon
rrs animate
celestial, all
dominion of
ire held in
id, and seas
t% rains fall,
;asts growl,
i strong and
g about the
the shrouds
■ing. From
rtiele to the
ig infant to
office, place,
c affairs of
d as under
masoning in-
referred to
That most
sve now per-
and rational
te and irra-
'eatures and

would seem
The crystal
the granite
TOWS not as
mountain is

Call it by
3ncy, cosmo-

inscrutiblo
d no less in

blind matter than in enlightened intellect. Whether
this power be increate and eternal, or finite; whether
it is conceived per sc and exists in se, or is the result
of a priori conceptions and exists per alind, it is clear
to all that system and design are among its most
prominent features.

Further than this, every person and every tiling
imposes laws on every other ])erson and every other
thing. Under force exists all; physical force, first
(lominator, then moral force, moral force being the
legitimate result of physical force, the legitimate and
justiliable result, which makes might right, else we
should not find it so. Nature is law's logic, law's
reas(3n. Whatever in nature man finds stronger than
himself he calls right, whatever is weaker he pro-
nounces wrong. We do not ask if the air has the
right to blow on us, or the water to drown us, or the
iiie to burn us; but when human societies commit
uncontrollable follies they are anathema, because they
are susceptible of improvement. In framing laws for
the rejjfulation of nations in their relations one toward
another, might is first considered and then right.
International law is little else than an attempt to
refine barbarisms, not an attempt to eradicate them.
Even lawless war has its laws, and the law-breaking
duello: likewise lust, and robbery, and all those worse
than beastly doings which cause God to blush for man
whom he has made, and for the laws which so sadly
fail to secure in him decency.

Follow nature back into the infinite, and, obscure as
are its operations to us, w^e yet can see even here a
government under mechanical laws. No new force is
found which may not have had exi^ *"once from the
beginning, and neither force nor mati'^v is distinguish-
able in one world which may not be common to all
worlds. That is to say, by observation, uniformity of
action and regularity in results have been discovered
in nature, and have been called laws. The genesis of
man is but a sequel to the genesis of nature. So

Pop. Tmb., Vol. I. 3

it POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

linked with each other are all the natural sciences, so
interwoven are the forces which govern man and
nature, that wo can see in the progress of civihzation
only a continuation of that process of evolution every-
where apparent in the physical world. And this law
of naturt! is as far hack as we can go in searching the
origin of law. Law is universal and singular; whethei
natural or artificial, it is one and the same principle.
The forces of nature are diverse, and are held in
equilibrium by their antagonisms. Some of them at
times appear to act contrary to the interests of man,
yet all fa'^or him when duly restricted and directed.
Wind and water may be trained to sail ships and turn
mills, and the lightning which strikes destruction is
bridled to carry messages. Society, .at first free,
accepts self-subordination for the purpose of subor-
dinating others, which done, it struggles for freedom.
This partially achieved, it lapses into yet more strin-
gent restraints.

It appears not a little s' e that of all created
things civilized man should nou be able to live in har-
mony with his kind without first binding himself in
social, political, and theological fetters. In this respect
he is more brutish than brutes, more extravagant
in his senselessness than inanimate things. As thr
heathen by the mouth of Protagoras put it, "Man
was overlooked in the original distribution of gifts bv
Epimetheus among mortal creatures, and was left the
only base and defenceless animal in creation; and
though Prometheus strove to remedy his brother's
oversight as far as he could by giving him fire and
other means of life, still there was no principle of
government, and man kept slaying and plundering his
brother man; till at last Jove took pity on him, and
sent Hermes to distribute justice and friendship, not
to a favored few but to all alike."

Inanimate things and irrational creatures must
blindly obey the law of nature, but r/( tional men find

MAN BORN INTO TlOXnA«;E.

3.-.

sciences, so
man and
civilization
ition evoi'V-
tid this law
irching tln'
ir; wliethov
e principle,
arc held in

of them at
sts of man,
id directed,
ps and turn
struction is
, first free,
se of subor-
for freedom.

more strin-

■ all created

live in har-

• himself in

this respect

extravagant

s. As thi'

it ic>

•Man

of gifts by
jwas left tlu'
leation ; am I
lis brother's
lim fire and
[principle of

indering his
|on him, and

jndship, not

itures must
lal men find

it necessary to place themselves under restrictions of
their own making in order to dwell together in har-
mony. In masses of progressive men there {i[)pears
to be a mental inaptitude for single and independent
self-guidance; and failing the instincts of tiic brute, a
code of conduct must be marked out and stamped
with some sort of authority. Their well-being left by
nature partially free, they must needs fetter it imme-
diately or their behavior becomes such as to bring upon
tliemsclves destruction. Should man some day become
emancipated from the law of nature, he may hope to
emancipate liimself from the restrictions which the
boon of free-will lays upon him. Even the beasts
which when wild might roam at will, tamed must
have a halter. So it is with wild and tamed men.
Laws are the cords that tie each person in his place,
in proportion as private and public intelligence
inci'eases the authoilty of rulers decreases. Law
jiiises from necessity, and not from the desire of
individuals for restraint. Though in everv human
jicrrrreijation there must be some sort of subordination,
in the earlier and incoherent stages it is verv slight ;
eidy with the evolution of society is a complex
<n)vernmental svsteni evolved. The animalism in man
must be restrained, if not on principles of morality then
from expediency. If man were only animal, then bird-
law, 01- fish-law, or beast-law would suffice. But man
is more than animal, and animal laws do not answ«'r
lor tlie regulation of intellectual properties. Tht;
normal condition of mankind is progress. To progress
belong -"vealth, rights, and mental culture; and for
the preservation of these there must be a yielding of
some ])ortion of the individual will to the united will
of the nation, some regulations or laws which all are
bound to obey.

It is into such bondage man is born. Innumerable
laws, twisted into the cable of one great law, bind him
at the outset to his treadmill existence. And as if
this were not enough he straightway sets about fonnu-

POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

lating forces which shall place him under new restric-
tions, light at first, but made stronger at each step
that lifts him above brute existence. Peopling the
heavens with dire intelligences, ho passes an epoch of
spiritual and political superstitions in which the mind
becomes stupefied by an agony of slavish fear. From
this despotism, in due time, he awakens, rattles his
chains, breaks some of them, but only to find stronger,
finer cords with each emancipation. Thus paradox-
ical is our freedom when it comes, liberty leading only
to greater bondage ; for the more advanced the civil-
ization the more powerful the unwritten law. Is it
not humiliating, is it not far from high or holy sat-
isfaction, the thought that of all animals man alone
should require conventional rules immediately he as-
sociates in a civilized way; that with his intelligence
and reason he should require laws to govern him,
when brutes associate in comparative harmony, each
with its kind, without the appointment of legislature,
governor, judge, or hangman ? Obviously this is the
penalty man pays for his reason. It is because he is
a reasonable creature that he is forced thus to regulate
his conduct according to reason. It is because he is
one with the eternal all-ruling intelligence, that intel-
ligence is necessary in the direction of his affairs.
Yet if we so conclude that in God's stead man rules
himself; that nature makes not laws for its creator:
tliat man's intelligence is above nature, and nature
makes no laws for the intellect of man — still I should
say so much the v/orse for an intelligence which so
humiliates intelligence, and I should find nothing ad-
mirable or worshipful in such domination.

But however may seem to us the origin of law
and the manufacturing of statutes, the necessity of
written rules we must recognize. Law we must have,
and government, for so it is appointed unto man. And
good citizens will obey the law and support the gov-
ernment; for it is for them and their children, as

'if

SUPERSTITIONS OF LAW.

ao-ainst the wicked, as protection from those who would
injure them, that laws are made and governors placed
in authority to execute the laws. But to talk of the
sacred ness of law, at this day, is to clothe rules and
prescriptions with the superstitious veneration which
enslirouded them of old. Government is, or should
be, the united will of a majority of the people
cooperated for protection against that spirit of evil
which seems to take possession in a greater or less
degree of certain members of every community;
and there is nothing honorable, august, or sacred
in the office, or in the person of him who exercises
delegated power, which is not found in the persons of
those who bestow it. Yet mankind are slow to shake
off' this superstition; so slow that from the divine
right of kings they step to the divine right of legis-
lators, and the despotism of monarchy is succeeded
by a despotism of democracy.

The strongest element of social subordhiation is
found in that awe in which the masses hold the
possessors of power; and those high-sounding titles
and imposing pageantries which unduly magnify the
actions of officials so foster in the popular mind this
spirit of reverence as to make disloyalty the greatest
ef crimes.

The very words and symbols of authority, such as
legal verbiage, red tape and seals, and all that clap-
tr;i{) of justice of which wigs, gowns, and divers
liollow ceremonies are a part, tend to impose upon
tlie people and fill their minds with fear as of some
solemn mysterious power. When the Athenian leaders
ol' pojniLir reform, Pericles and Ephialtes, talked of
alxilisliiiig the high court of the Areopagus, ^:!]schylus
in lii.s ^reat Triology represented the venerable court
as having been founded by Pallas for the trial of
Orestes, and so held it up as an institution ever to be
revered by every pious Athenian. Up to the year
182;], when Mr Black, editor of the Morning C/iron-
i'c/e, attacked some of the vices and absurdities of En-

POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

glisli law, the judicature of England was regarded a
model of perfection.

Not justice alone, but courts of justice, in the eyes
of Ignorance, are given us by the gods. The most
prominent effort of philosophy to-day is to rescue
from empiricism the laws under which human beings
aggregate and live.

From the worship of demi-gods and heroes, from
the Hebrew Scriptures or other holy books, from the
Caesarian despotism, or from some other source, man-
kind became imbued with the opinion that kings, as
representatives of divine power on earth, should be
implicitly obeyed; nor was it until a comparatively
recent period that the theory of original compact be-
tween the ruler and his subjects was recognized.
Blood revenge was held by the savage a sacred duty,
as civilized law to-day is held by certain of its minis-
ters a sacred thing.

The earliest form of government, after the govern-
ment of environment, is the authority exercised by
the parent over the child. The child is born helpless,
and in its rearing and education it must adapt itself
to the more experienced will of the parent. The father
of tlio family beconnjs the patriarch of an aggrega-
tion of families. Posterity deifies his memory, and he
takes his place among the gods of the national mythol-
ogy. At length the doctrine of uiicestral divinity is
applied to the living monarch. Altliough he may not
yet be deemed divine, his mission is. Althougli not
a god, he has the authority of a god, delegated, it may
be, from his tlead ancestors, and later from the cre-
ator. He is respected by his subjects as of heaven ly
origin. He is addressed in the terms in which tlic
creator is addressed, Majesty, Lord. Obeisance is
made to him as to God. Men hold their lives and
their property subject to his will, submitting to him,
as vicegerent of the creator, as they submit to God,
their- maker. But witli the elevation of the intellect

DIVINE KINGSHIP.

egarded a

a the eyes

The most

to rescue

lan beings

roes, from
, from the
irce, man-
t kings, as
should be
paratively
impact be-
ecognized.
cred duty,
its minis-

le govern-

srcised by

n helpless,

iapt itself

riie father

aororrejja-

ry, .and he

il mythol-

iivinity is

e may not

lough not

ed, it may

1 the cre-

heavenly

which tlic

(.'isance i.s

lives and

g to him,

t to God,

3 intellect

comes the downfall of the divine theory of king-
craft. The monarch is divested of his supernatural
robes; he is permitted to rule at the will of the people.
Loyalty comes to mean patriotism rather than abject
submission.

Now patriotism is but a reflex of egotism, and re-
spect for statutes and constitutions is but another
form of loyalty. And as excessive love of country is
excessive self-love, so undue worship of forms of law
is a part of that superstitious loyalty which of old held
to the doctrine of divine kingship. If reverence is
anywhere due, whatever good there may ])e in loyalty,
in that sentiment which unites individuals under a
common head, it is not the power of law wliich should
1)0 I'cverenced, but the power which creates and sus-
tains law. This doctrine of divine kingship appears,
in a sort of inverted form, in the Athenian's creed,
wliich hold it dangerous for a man to rise above his
fellows— whence ostracism, or oyster-shell voting a
too ambitious man out of the country.

From this divine king-worship have sprung many of
the courtesies of modern society, expressions of fear,
awe, propitiation, submission, as well as political sub-
oidination. Form of some kind is necessary. I have
said that the forces of nature are In Id in e(juilil)rium
l)V their antao'onisms. Throutrhoul. the universe we
see two great contending powers, attraction and re-
])ulsioii, both of which are essential to devel(»]>ment,
nay, to life itself It is the action and reaction of
tlieso opposing forces tliat give form and life to niattci',
tliat underlie all development, that sepai'ate the chaos
of nebula) into systems of worlds, and systems of vege-
table aufl animal organisms. So it is in society. It
is the tendency of opposing forces toward an e(|ui-
libriuiu that constitutes progress. If wealth an<l cul
tiu-e and rank and power had, from the beginning, been
given in eijual parts to every individual, there would
he no activity, no struggle, no progress. The laws of
man and the laws of matter are correlative.

POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

As refinement and good morals assert dominion
crime diminishes, and thus the penalty that the com-
munity must pay for the evil which is done in it is
lessened. What will quicker arouse the spirit of
liberty than despotism, of order than anarchy? How
could we value virtue but for vice? Civilization may
have been dearly purchased at the cost of so much
suffering and wickedness, but without war, bigotry,
murder, tyranny — in short, without the combined evils
incident to humanity, the very existence of progres-
sional phenomena is unthinkable. Nevertheless, each
new blessing only opens the door to new bondages.

Between the forces of society and the laws by
which those forces act there is a vast difference, a
difference not always recognized by legislators and
jurists. Often law is mistaken for force, and force for
law. If I toss a ball into the air, the law of gravita-
tion is not subverted, though its force may be. When
laws antagonistic both to tlie forces that movts society
and to the laws that govern such forces are placed
on the statute-book, they are certain to be eithei'
annulled or to stand inoperative. Without the sup-
port of the people, I s.iy, statutes arc the stolidest oi"
dead things. Solon was well aware that his law.s
were not the best that could be made, but they were
the best the Athenians would receive. Self-preserva-
tion and all other instincts arc forces, and their behavior
under given conditions reveals to us the la'vs under
\N"Jiieh they act. Social forces make for themselves
sociological laws; statutory laws are neither the one
nor the other, but to remain in force they must bo
consistent with both. Many say that popular tribu-
nals are good in theory but wrong in practice. Now
iijnorance alone affirms of a thino: that it mav be cor-
rect in theory, and at the same time impracticable.
Nothing true in theory can be untrue in practice; it'
a plan fails in its ap])licat5on, then clearl}'^ the hypotli-
esis is at fault.

Often we hear remarked of an enactment, It is ;i

THE RIGHT OF REVOLUTION.

: dominion
,t the coni-
)ne in it is
D spirit of
hy ? How
zation may
3f so much
ir, bigotry,
ibined evils
of progrcs-
leless, each
tondages.
le laws by
ifference, a
jlators and
nd force for
of gravita-
be. When
lOVG society
are placed
be eithci-
at the sup-
stolidest of
it his laws
they weit--
f-preserva-
ir behavioi'
a'vs under
themselves
ler the one
y must b<:
ular tribu-
ice. Now
nay be cor-
iracticablt'.
practice; ii"
le hypoth-

nt, It is ;i

good law, but impossible of execution. How absurd !
A law impossible of execution, or that otherwise falls
far short of its purpose, is not a good law, is worse
than no law at all. Stupidly we look to legislation as
an infallible panacea for every social ill, and never
cease alternately to beseech and curse the demi-gods
who sit in council to make our laws. Thus endless
expectation waits on endless disappointment.

This doctrin*^ of the divine right of kings and passive
obedience on the part of the people never obtained in
Anglo-Saxon America, and least of all in California.
So sovereign in thought and feeling were the people
of this new commonwealth, that traditional forms and
conventional restraint were for the most part thrown
aside. At the first every mining district made its
own laws and regulated its own affairs. As in sav-
agism, government, which according to the modern
ideal, is the protection of life and property and the
punishment of crime, was absent. And indeed they
did very w^ell without it, for there was little property,
8a^■e that of a portable kind, and every man defended
liis own life or left it without defence. He punished
crimes committed against himself, if he was able ; if not,
lit- It' ft thoni unpunished. Later came that loyalty
which springs from social compact, a compact which
(k'lcnates certain rights of the individual to society
on condition that society shall protect him in otlier
linlits, tlic conscience as well as the person gradually
l)ti-oiiiing bound l)y it. But when established forms
aiv warped for vile ])urposes by a dishonest minority,
then thu principle of self-preservation comes in, which
our laws and our constitution, as well as every in-
stinct of our nature, hold to be first.

The whole matter — that is, the right of vigilance,
not the expediency or the manner of its execution-
turns after all on the right of revolution, a right which
a pi'tori few deny, howsoever one complains when in its

POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

iiicipiency it may tread on one's interests or preju-
dices. I say the morale of that class of social erup-
tions which in California took the name of vigilance
committees turns on one's view of this right of revo-
lution and on one's general conceptions of law and
ethics. Were Luther, and Cromwell, and Washing-
ton right? Were Coleman, and Dempster, and Truett
wrong? And if it be true that under sufficient provo-
cation a number of persons possess the right to rebel
against their rulers, then we might enquire how much
provocation is necessary to render rebellion justifiable,
and how many robbers, or murderers, or disturbers of
the public peace must band before their acts shall be
raised from the category of crime to the dignity of
insurrection. '

I do not mean to say that the vigilance committees
in California, and elsewhere in the Pacific States,
were revolutionary in their character. They were
not. It was no part of their purpose in any instance
to overthrow the government, to usurp political
power, or to clog the machinery of legislation or of
law. The principle involved, however, is the same.
It is the act, rather than the motive, that the law
judges. The question is, not whether it is right to
break the law in order to accomplish a good purpose,
but whether it is ever right to break the law at all.

On this question the ablest minds, not alone in
California, but throughout the world, as before inti-
mated, were at issue. Though tacitly admitting thu
right of revolution, there were those who denied tlu;
exercise of that right. And diflferences of opinion
have existed, and do still exist, both as to the right
and the policy of an arbitrary a^.Jumption of adminis-
trative power by the people under any circumstances.
Better, some say, that virtuous citizens should throw
their weight into the balance with legislature and law
Cv)urts, and so achieve the right unstained by lawless
bleed. To sanction the doinij of evil that good niav
come IS to tread on dangerous ground, and estal'

THE TWO PARTIES.

5 or prcju-
jocial erup-
)f vigilance
;ht of revo-
of law and
i Washing-
, and Truett
jient provo-
^ht to rebel
e how much
1 justifiable,
listurbers of
icts shall be
e dignity of

5 committees
,cific States,
They were
any instance
iirp political
dation or of
IS the same.
,hat the law
is right to
ood purpose,
law at all.
not alone in
. before inti-
idmitting the
lo denied the
!S of opinion
to the right
u of adminis-
ircumstances.
should throw
ature and law
ed by lawless
lat good lUiiy
J, and ostali-

lifsh a precedent which some day may recoil on its
authors with terrible effect. Where the law ends,
tyranny begins; the cure is worse than the disease.
Such and many other like maxims are brought for-
ward in defence of obedience to the existing laws of
the land under any and all circumstances.

On the other hand the right of revolution is main-
tained as the dearest right of a free people. Law is
the servant and not the master of men. When the
law, made by a majority of citizens, becomes dead or
inutile, it is not only the privilege but the duty of the
majority to adopt new rules for the governance and
protection of society. As a rule the minority con-
tend that the state as a political organism embodies
sovereign power, and that the power of the state
is superior to the power of the people, while the
majority maintain that the people are sovereign.
If the laws and constitution are contrary to the
will of the majority, then the minority rule; if a
majority of the people possess the sovereign power,
it seems paradoxical to allege that they can commit
tieason against themselves. Respect for the law,
obedience to righteous law, these are the questions
involved. Manifestly it is the duty of every individual
[to heed and obey the laws; thus far both sides agree,
and thus far there may be a tincture of divinity in
[the existing laws, for statutory law is supposed to
Iciubody most of the divine and moral laws. But it
lis not that species of divinity attributed to law from a
study of the law's mystical technicalities by the high
f)ii( sts of its idolatry, which makes form superior to
substance, and bows before the ski leton long after
the soul has departed.

Hence arose two parties, the Law and Order party,
[and the Popular Tribunal party. Both sides agreed
[that the laws of the land should be obeyed, but in
practice there was this difference : The popular ))arty —
that is t(^ say the people, the masses, of which com-
niittees of vigilance are always composed — were as a

POPULAR GOVERNMENT.

rule industrious, orderly, God-fearing, and law-abiding-
men. They were the class that laws are made to pr« •-
tect and not to punish. The law and order party, aftci-
including a certain class of lawyers and officials, was
composed in a great measure of the lawless and order -
less, habitual law-breakers, who lived not by honest
labor, but by subverting and distorting the law so that
they might fatten on the labor of others, and who
estimated the justice of the judge by their own
villainy ; and it was seemingly fit that those who lived
by the breaking of laws should thus band for mutual
support. This was the class the laws were made to
punish; but in their hands, and in the hands of their
masters whom they had elevated to office, it con-
stituted a safe protection for them, and was made to
punish those only whom it should have protected.
It was wholly an anomalous condition of things, and
to judge the action of early Californians by the ruk'>
of older societies is wrong. No wonder these men
saw divinity in law; it was the only kind of divinity
many of them were ever able to discern ; the divinity
of tlie ballot-box, of jails and city halls; that devilisli
divinity which affords protection from lawful penalties
incurred by promiscuous robbery and murder.

I say it is absurd to charge the members of the San
Francisco Vigilance Committee with disrespect fn
the laws. Their deference was not displayed in loud
protestations of patriotipm, in fanatical adoration of
the capped and gowned goddess of liberty, or in
lung-splitting reverence for a piece of starred and
striped bunting; these were the sounding brass and
tinkling cymbal of the law and order party. Tlic
deference of the mercantile and industrial classes for
law was manifest in practice rather than in profession.
Their daily life was a standing commentary on
their respect for and obedience to the laws of God
and the laws of their country, even if they did some-
what roughly handle the law in rescuing it from tlie
elutches of wicked men.

VIGILANCE IS NOT THE ENEMY OF LAW.

law-abidiiiL;'
made to pr« •-
r party, aftoi-
Qfficials, was
IS and ordoi -
it by honest
B law so that
rs, and who

their own
se who hved
I for mutual
ere made to
nds of their
fice, it con-
vas made to
3 protectefl.

things, and
by the ruk>
• these men

of divinity
the divinity
hat devihsli
ul penalties
der.

3 of the San
respect fn
yed in loud
deration of
erty, or in
tarred and
• brass and
>arty. Tlu'

classes fnr

profession.
lentary on
LWS of God
Y did some-
it from tlk'

Not disrespect for the law, nor a denial of the
human and divine right of law to be obeyed ; not the
absence of a necessity for law ; not a lack of due def-
erence to judges, governors, and administrators of the
law when such deference was their due, when it was
not the deference of subjects to a master but the
del'orence of freemen for the instrument which for
the time embodied their common rule of conduct,
wliic.^li would result in the greatest good to the greatest
niunber — nothing of this kind can rightly be charged
on members of vigilance committees. It was the
right of a majority of the people to suspend the
action of the law, or to change the existing form of
law or of government by the surest and most direct
method, whenever they deemed it essential to the
well-being of society to do so — and this, if necessary,
without waiting the slower, less effectual, and less
certain means provided by constitution or statute.
In short it was the right of revolution which they
claimed; a right more divine than the divine right
of law; a right stoutly sustained as the bulwark of
all our liberties, from the days of John, king of En-
gland, to the present time; a right which cannot be
denied without stopping the wheels of progress and
sending mankind back into the Dark Age.

CHAPTER III.

ENGENDERING CONDITIONS.

There is what I call the Amcricou idea.

Theodore Parker.

For the further elucidation of the subject, I propose
to give a historical sketch of Popular Tribunals in i\\v.
Pacific States, more particularly in San Francisco,
covering a period of thirty years from their inception.

And first of all, a glance at the several phases of
early society throughout this territory, with special
reference to such causes and conditions as stimulate
or retard the displays of irregular administration here
engendered.

The conquerors of Central America and Mexico,
and those who followed in their wake as settlers, were
not subjected to the same species of anomalous justice
that later influenced the loose-minded pioneers of
Anglo-Saxon heritage. For this two causes may be
assigned: First, the Spanish settlers were colonists,
under the immediate rule of a despotic governor aj)-
pointed by a jaalous sovereign. In most instances this
governor exercised over his subjects the power of life
and death ; standing in the king's stead, he was respon-
sible for his acts only to the crown. His government
was military as well as civil, and irregularities, if not
committed by himself, were grave offenses. Moreover,
loyalty was so inbred in the Spanish character, so
part of that superstition which constitutes the second
cause why vigilance committees could not exercise
their sway under Spanish rule, that to oppose their

(46)

SPANISH SOCIETIES.

! Parker.

ct, I propose
)unals in the
n Francisco,
)ir inceptioii.
al phases of
with special
as stimulati
itration here

lid Mexico,

sttlers, wert>

ilous justice

pioneers of

ises may ho

e colonists,

ovornor a]>-

istancGS this

ower of hfi'

was rcspoTi-

tjovernment

ities, if not

Moreovei',
laracter, so

the second
ot exercise
ppose their

(46)

will to that of the sovereign or liis deputy, was an act
HO sacrilegious as to be entertained only by the most
abandoned. To the uttermost ends of the earth the
wrath of heaven would pursue the disobedient. And
whatsoever element of society there might be not un-
der the complete dominion of secular power, the church
was sure to hold in subjection. The Spanish colonists
were not their own masters. They could not go ami
come as they pleased; they could not explore, subdue,
and occupy except by permission. Unless thoroughly
loyal to (jiiurch and state, they were not fit subjects
for colonization; they were not Spaniards; they were
heretics, worse than Moslem or Jew, and fit only for
death and perdition. They could act in any direction
only by permission of the creator himself, as spoken
by his vicegerents, who were in temporal aflairs
the king of Spain or his deputy, and in spiritual
mutters the pope of Rome or his deputy. Later,
when both church and state by their sottish inanity
lost much of their power, and the yoke of Spain fell
from the necks of the colonists, society split into in-
numerable opposing factions, which have been uniting
and dividing and fighting each other much of the
time since. All the while crime was rampant. Few
were too good to steal. The rich were forced to con-
trilmte of their wealth to the support of the party in
])o\ver; the officers of the government were seldom
zealous except under the stimulus of a bribe ; justice
was bought and sold, and there was little difterence, ex-
ce]it in outward appearance, between the professional
highwayman and the peculator in office. Meanwhile
there spawned a hybrid race, brute-low in stupidity ;
and these, poor and priest-ridden, were glad to eat and
sun themselves in peace, careless of all things else.
People, in our Anglo-American sense of the word,
there were few; surely it is apparent enough that
there was not here the material for a vigilance com-
mittee. Of banditti there were always plenty. High-
way robbery was here raised to a science. Instead

ENOENDKRINO CONDITIONS.

f taking the road and keeping it, thereby stoppinj;
travel and ruining the business, the marauders would
migrate irregularly, so as always to have some part of
their iield lying fallow. But alternately almost every
section was visited, and at such times every highway
sA\'arnied with robbers. The criminal statistics of re-
publican Mexico show some twenty thousand arrests
annually, beside which those of California, even durinij
her periods of most stringent reform, seem tanii'
enough. And the guard was sometimes even more
dangerous than the outlaw; it was th^" proper thing for
a hired escort to do, to flee at the approach of banditti,
if indeed they did not assist in the pillage. Convicts
wei'o sometimes bound in couples by means of iron
girdles, sometimes with chains six feet in length, and
put to work on the highway. The jails of Sonora
were poor affairs; and as for police. In many parts
they were unknown. Banditti became so bold at
times as to enter a town and rob 1 store in open
day; if they confined their operatioj^s t(^ the road and
to strangers, the authorities were not quicK to molest
them.

The constitution of Sonora provided a tribunal of
justice composed of three chambers with letrados, that
is to say, three judges and Si fiscal; the letrados to b('
chosen by non-professionals. These were appointed
every four years by congress. Magistrates were
selected under special laws which defined their power;
some were appointed by the governor with approval
of congress. Frequently judges were placed in offico
expressly to be used as the tools of those electing
them, even as under governments of more pretensions.
Few were learned in jurisprudence, and many could
not read or write.

An old Mexican living in the robber-infected region
of Jalisco called together the neighboring ranchcros
and made war in a body on the banditti. Soon the
district was cleared of them; but in their zeal tlie
armed corps did not stop there. Whenever any sus-

SONORA AND LOWKR CALIFORNIA.

4!»

picious-looking persons were seen lounging about, they
were shot ilown without waiting to undergo the forms
and uncertainties of law. When asked if in this way
it dill not sometimes happen that the innocent were
punished with the guilty, the old man answered : "Oli,

es; but the average on the right side is sure to be

cpt up !"

■i

The northern part of Lower California has been
much of the time in a disorganized state, the orders
of the supreme government being unknown; and, in-
[deod, had they been known they would not have been
regarded along the frontier, some claiming to be
under the government of Alta California and some
[professing to belong to Baja California, which was
equivalent to being under the jurisdiction of neither.
It was held to be a very wicked thing to kill a
priest; more wicked than to kill a man less sure of
seraphic glories. In 1805 a woman murdered Father
Surroca in his bed because she had been dismissed
ifrom the padre's house. What Surroca had done to
[her is not stated. The order for the execution of the
|w(jman, together with two natives, was passed by the
[auditor of war on the last day of the year afore-
said. The auditor recommended hanging, if an ex-
jcutioncr could be found; if not, shooting would do.
In either event, the head and right hand of the
'omau were to be spitted in the most public place
11 Santo Tomds, and those of the others in other,
mitable places.

The 10th of June, 1849, Agustin Mancilla y Gram-
)oa writes from San Francisco Javier to his brother
it San Diego complaining of the insecure condition of
)roperty, and the absence of any administering of
justice. Among other outrages, he speaks of the rob-
)ery of the church of Santo Tomds and the sale of
the articles to some men trading toward San Diego„
md asks for their arrest. J. Ross Browne testifies
that in 1866 the country was well governed, thougk

Pop. Tbib., Vol I. «,

kxoexdkuint; conditions.

betwoeii the yeai's IK51 and 18()1 tlie Peninsula was
infested witli runaway -ascalsfroni Mexico and Call
f'ornia, many <>t' whom '• \d to be sliot as a warnin;^.
And notwithstandiniij the frequent revolutions, BrowiK
asserts that Lower California is a peaceful country,
and that rol)l)ery and murder arc infrequent.

Here, as elsewhere under ^Eexican I'ule, the custoiu
was prevalent of advancing supplies to miners; that
is, of ])ayini:4' them, usually in merchandise at exorlii-
tant ])riccs, for some time in advance, trustiui^- to tlu
hold law and custom gave upon the jiorson of such
debtors to get back their expenditure, with a [)rotit.
in the services of those thus Ifouiid to them. A
mining superintendent neai" Santo Tonuis in Januarv,
1858, havino- distributed the weeklv I'ations as usual.
found oiii' morning that advantage had been taki i.
of the circumstance ])y two miners, who had <lr-
cann)e(l during the night, amply supi)lied with fotid,
.Vs soon as the discovery was made, the su])erinteii<l-
ent sent an American to the alcalde at Santo Tonuh
to obtain an order for the arrest of the fugitives. It
was iui'iiished at once, conmiissioning the American^
to bring them back living or dead. The alcalde nl>'
sent three ^[exicans with him to assist in the exocii
tion of his order. They were successful in the jmr
suit, retui'ning to the alcalde before dusk with \\u
jirisoners, who, declaring themselves innocent of tlu
charsfc. were not confined in the calaboose. The iirxt
morning the alcalde went to the mines, ordering tin
prisoners to i'ollow in about half an lioui". Trust In-
to their honor, thev were allowed to come without ;i
guard, l^pon the opening of the court, the superin
tendent of the mines appeared as prosei'uting attorii<'\
Testimony was heard from all tlie witnesses witlxni;
any administering of oath. The court, unwilling t'
take the responsibility of deciding the case, propn>ii
that the plaintiff and defendants should choose homfn' -
huenos, and that the case be adjourned until the urW
day, which was done. The liombres buenos are ptm

•oninsula was

ico and Call

as a warning.

tions,Bro\vn(

•cful country,

lent.

lo, the custom

miners; tliat
ise at exorl>i-
fusting to till
^rson of sue! I
with a profit,
to them. A
is in Januaiv.
tions as usual.
1(1 Ijeen ta1v> i.
wlio had <li -
ied with food.
0 su])erintcu(l-

Santo Touifh

fugitives, h
;ho Ameri(.-aib
ic ak-alde al-

in the execu
Lil in the pur

usk with tli>
moccnt of tli'
jse. The 111 xt

, ordering tin.

»ur. Trust in.;

rule without ;i

■t. the superiii-

itingattoriiov.

nesses witli""'
, unwilhng t'
case, propnMii

choose A"<»'""
until the lu'M

lenos arc pi *^i'

iVLOXO TIIK MEXICAN FRONTIER.

^\\av to .Mexican judicature, differing from associate
Jjudges, arbitrators, or jurymen, but approximating
Howard all these. I'pon the presentation of the tes-
.'tiuumy to this tiihunal they decided to act on the
^ungestion of the superintendent, and condemned the
vprisonoi-s to work out the value of the rations with
Kvliich they had absconded, and to pay tlie costs of

;CiUU't.

Tlie execution of some twelve criminals by law in

^]S()0, murderers of Governor Castro and others,

;within a ])erio(l of five months, brought upon Es])arza,

lie <Tovernoi", a swarm of vermin friends of the exe-

uted, threatening his life and that of all those having

i^any hand in the executions.

When Dtivalos was governor of Lower California,

^^in isr^', wishing to increase his revenue while giving

gratilication to his people, he permitted during the

Christmas holidays a three days' indulgence in the

favorite hut interdicted same of monte. The fourth

day. desirous of seeing in person how his order for the

disci iiitiimance of the amusement had l)een obeyed, he

entered a saloon in company with an officer, and each

drawing a pistol, more in play than in earnest, ]X)inted

[till' weapons at a party seated at a monte table, and

rdeied their surrender. Unfortunately the gov-

riKir's pistol was accidentally discharged, hilling an

id and respected citizen of La Trincliora, Don Jose

lan'a ^[endoza, a looker-on. After whicli the jrov-

rimr, fearmg assassination at the hands of the

ir'ouiiMcr nieinbers of the Mendoza family, dared not

cnture ahroad save under cover of a )>ody guard of

en men.

In Xoveinber, 1875, small squads of Sonoran

anditti camped in Lower California just south of the

inc. The Americans on the San Diego side of the

1*1*1 ^

line did not ri'gard their piesencc so near their fam-
ilies with favor, and so they drove them away. Tlie
SOtli of this month two men, Lcclaire and Sosa, were
killed, as was supposed, by Lopez' gang. An alcalde

;)•_'

KNGENDERINfi ( ONDITIOXS.

of Lower California united with the slieriff of San
Diego to arrest and bring the offenders to justice.

Until a comparatively recent period, Arizona, in
common with northern Mexico, was in the hands nf
the savages. Wide ranges of country were not in-
habited by white men ; and to pass through the count ly,
unless prepared for battle, was attended with great
danger. There were sections rich in precious metals,
but to develop tlioin was impossible. The arid Sdii
offered few attractions for agriculturists; vast unin-
habitable deserts isolated settlers ou the fertile spots,
and afforded secure retreat for marauding aboriginals.
These same deserts, however, were not favorable hi
civilized ruffians; there were too few hiding-jdacc-,
and if not soon run down and cai)tured, hunger or
thirst would drive the flying criminal back upon his
aveno'ers. Xovertheless in due tiniu civilization di-
veloped some first-class scoundrels, who met their
dues at the hands of the popular tribunal.

Before the establishment of the Mexican repuMic
justice in New Mexico issued directly or indircellv
from the civil or military comandante. There wer.
minor courts for petty causes, but important cases woi«
decided for the most part by the governor. Affair^
were still worse after the oru'anization of the federal
government at the city of ^lexico. The only tril>unal
then in New Mexico was the alcalde's court. Under
certain restrictions appeals were carried to the supreim
couit at Chihuahua, but few could afford the d».'lav
and expense. The routine of law courts was unknown,
and the distance to the audiencia of Mexico was su
great as to impede the adjustment of rights.

The forms of litigation in New Mexico were quite
sinijile. The complainant appeared in person am!
made a verbal statement before the alcalde, wh'
ordered him to summon the accused, which was dow
by using the words, *Le llama el alcalde,' the plain-

ARIZONA AND XKW >rKXICO.

licrift* oi' San
to justice.

i, Arizoiica, in
the hands ui
were not iu-
h the country,
3(1 with great
ecious metals,
The arid s^i!
ts; vast unin-
c fertile spots,
isjf aboriiTjinals,
t favorable tn
liiding-[»lac(>,
cd, hunger i>r
back upon hi-
;iviHzation di-
ho met thoii'
lal.

xioan repullie
r or indirccllv

There wlt.
■ant cases woii
rnor. xVffalr-
of the fedoial
oonly tril)Uiial
;ourt. Under
to the suprcnu'
brd the dolav
was unknown,
lexico was so
ghts.

ico were quito
a person am!

alcalde, avIv
hich was d«nii
de,' the plain-

tiff thus acting as coniplainant and constable. The
defendant failing to appear in answer to the verbal
(Bununons of the plaintiff, the alcalde caused to eb
ierved on him the regular process of the court, which
Was a huge cane, called the htiston de jvsticia, an or-
dinary walking-stick, having sometimes cut upon it a
'f^ross, l)ut distinijuished from a common cane chieflv

«' y a black silk tassel peculiar to this stick of justice.
loth litigants luing present, each gave his invn version
pi the case. Sometimes witnesses wore sununonod
%ntl sworn on the cross cut on the baston de justicia.

tttener, however, a cross formed by the finger and
uinb was used in administering oaths. It was a lazy,
lyiiig sort of justice. Very frequently tliere WDuld l»e
Dei I her witness nor oath in the case, which indeed
Wa- often just as well. The alcalde would hear and
^determine. It Mas all law, and tlu^ magistrate was
fer ahovc fallible man. Trial by jury was not prac-
ised, but in ])lace ol" juries tliere were the hombres
Hienos hetore mentioned, to whom cases were (jften
}rerred foi- decision.

In judicial }>roccedings, little attention was paid to
)des or forms. Indeed, alcaldes learned in the law
K'le extremely lare, many of them m;vej' in theii-
ivo ha\iug looked between the covers of a law-l)ook.
their iiroceedings when not warped by cori'Ujttion
jeie controlled by the prevailing customs of the
>untry. Justii-e was administeretl undei- three di.s-
'•t and privileged jurisdictions, known as J'licros:
Fii-t. the (v/csidsticu, which ordained that no mem-
Bter ot the clergy above the I'ank of curate should be
M-rai-iK-d hefore a civil trihunal, but should be tried
the superiors of his order: second, the intllfar,
hich made similar jirovision in favor not tjnly of
Hnnussioued officers, but of connnon soldiers; third,
le civil or ordinary courts for all cases in which the
letendants were laymen. "These fueros," says ( Jregg,
ive hitherto maintained the ecclesiastic and mili-
y classes in perfect independence of the civil

ENfJEXDERIXG COXDITIOXS.

authorities. The c-ivil, in tart, reinains in some
tlcijfroo subortlinat(3 to the other two fueros: foi- it
can under no circumstances have any jurisdictiun
Avhatever over them, while the hiy phiintitt', in the
})rivile:L^e(l tribunals of these, may it' unsuccesslVil,
have judgment entered against him, a consequeiKv
that could never follow the suits of the ecclesiastical
or military ordei's before the civil tribunals."

The decisions of the alcalde were seldom in strict
accordance with the mei-its of the ciise, and bribery
"Was fre(juent. Indeed, lie who liad not the moiicv
Avith wliich to bribo the alcalde was almost sure to
lose his case. The injustice and coi'mption of couit-
of law constituted one of tlu' most painful features nf
this demoralized society. In a judicial contest will
the wealthy the poor stood little chance, for if judi
and Avitnesses were not directly bought with moii 'V
tlieir iniluence carried sutticient weight to ncutrali/t
])lebeian testimony if ottered against them. A ]iei'»';i
of iniluence could keep a prisoner in the i^a Injur...
almost at jileasure; on the other hand witliout wealth
or intiueuce justice was beyond reach.

In X(;w Mexico ]»unis]unent was administen.il
neither in ))roportion to the malignity of the otfein >,
nor having prominently in view the vindication "(
outraged law, nor th*; I'eformation of the evil-doi i
Shoukl the creditor express a willingness to a])ply tli'
services of a (lei)tor on account of the judgment o!i-
tained, the debtor was not imprisoned; but from tiu'
low wages allowed it was easy, in most cases, for the
credito]', by making fuitlu>r a<lvances from tinn' t"
time, to reduce the debtor to a state of peonagi' ami
hold him in l)ondage for life. For debt, theft, ainl
murder, the customary sentence was the same, ';'i l;i
ciircel,' and the offender was likidy to remain about
as long ilirough inability to pay an insignificant >\m
of money as for the gravest of crimes, always pro\ iJi'l
that notl ing was forthcoming for pur[»oses of bi-iln iv

The mode of punishment was fine and impri-nii

MORMON JUSTICK.

LUIS in some
fueros; for it
y jurisdiction
uiutirt', iu tlic
uusucoessl'al,
L consequoiK'o
c ect'lesiastiral
mils."

Idom iu strict
0, and l)rilKiy
ot the nionrv
dinost sure to
ption of couits
iful features of
il (.-ontest wi'li
CO, tor if jui!.;
.it with moiiyy
.t to neutrali/i
em. A pei'>>';i
u the cdluli"'--
without wealth

iuhuinisten.il

of the ott'euiv.

vindication "f

the evil-doti

jss to a|)ply tho

judgment oli-

;'but fi'om thf

t cases, for tli*'

from tinii' t"

f peoiia<4'e :iu4

[cht, tlie'ft, aii'l

the same, ':i ';'

reniain ahoiit

si<4niticant sum

d ways pro vi<K'l

tsesof brilii'i'}
and iniprix'"

I.)

[)

ment, which in a society so dull, oivcn to such sensual
,L;ratiiications as lav witliin tlieir reach, was by no
means the most awe-inspirin_ij;' or etfeetual. Fine could
not be exacted wliere the otlender possessed nothing;
and ini|)ris()mnent implied shelter and food, comforts
not always within the reach of all.

iiodily infliction, though open to the charge of
brutality, is after all, in some form, the only ])unish-
nu lit capable of holding crime in check. Some abhor
wliij)[iing from the })ain it brings, others from the
disgrace attending it; all fear death. As for tlie
relative brutality of corjKjral [tunishmcnt and im-
prisonment, I think under analysis the sentiment
w oiild signify a caprice of fashion rather than a vital
ditlere!ice. To cage a human being like a wild beast,
t>v to chastise him and give him his liberty, there is
nil this ground little choice.

In L tall religious fanaticism aljsorbed all sense of
)u>-tice. To dis(jl)ey the church was never so much
a> thought of among its followers. For any number
of Mormons to assume attituiles antagonistic to their
leadei's, or to divine revelation, was scarcely deemed
l>ossihle. The MomKni theocracy left no place for
<|Uestioning ; where (lod himself inuuediat el v governed.

then

leed.

was law

^acrof

I tl

HIIL!',

lere was

little need (»f judicial mechanisms, c<nirt jugglerie-

toi'ni:-

furbel

ows. (lod's will was law; that will

as made known by the mouth of his pr(»phet

that the voice of the church itself was la

IJn.l

el'

suc!i a regime, the little pimishnit'iit little children
re(|uire(l was easily administered, and the s|)irit of law
and order iirought these blind and ignorant worshi[)-
pers to their knees, and held them there in'bi'eathless
awe. I ncKr a theocratic government, no less than
un(Ur a strong despotic government, we shall look in
vaiu for the jtopular tribunal. The necessity lor such
an (jrgani/.ation could not exist, or if it did, the
material ( om|)o>ing it could not bo found; for if such

ENUENDERI\(i CONDITIONS.

principles obtained there would no longer be any
theocracy. Utah cannot boast of a single respectable
mob, if we exclude from such category, as certainly
we must, troubles Avith natives and with gentiles.

In California the case was different. Unlike the
tribes of Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico,
tlie natives of the great valley drained l)y the Sacra-
mento and the San Joaquin were weak, defenceless,
peaceable. The attention of the miners was not ab-
sorbed, their interests were not welded by fear of the
savages. The poor creatures aboriginally inhal)itiiin
the Sierra Foothills were little disposed to retaliate
the insults and outrages heaped upon them; should
the}"^ now and then attempt to right a wrong, a
hundred lives for one was regarded j^oor paynn^nt,
and such impious justice soon swept them away.

Utah had much law and few people; California had
many peojde and little law. I do not speak as in
relative numbers, but as to the relative intelligence,
force, and capabilities of the people. California wa-
little cursed by superstition; probably there never
were assemlded from all nations a greater number
whose minds weie so enfranchised from the tyranny
of ancient traditions, and whose thouglits wore s<i
free. In such a society we may confidently look lj(jtli
for evil-doers and for those possessed of will and
strength enough to punish them. The true followci>
of the prophet could never do wi'ong; they were not
endowed with wit, wisdom, and energy sutheient for
the achievement of great wickedness. Tliis, however,
applies oidy to the earlier immigrants, whose miiid-
were at first dazed under the illumination of tin
bright skies of Utah, bein^ so suddonlv transformed
thither from the dark places of Euroi)e and America
It cannot be truthfully saiil of the people of Utah
that they were long non-progressive. Behold even
now, as their vestments ai-e becoming somewhat
<;leansed of the ditch-water of England and Germa?iy
bv the pure springs of their American oasis, do they

EARLY SOCIETY OF NEVADA.

«7

rer be any
respectable
as certainly
rentiles.
Unlike tin'
crn Mexico.
y the Sacra -
defenceless,
was not ab-
f fear of the
y inhabitin<4
[ to retaliate
leni; should
a wrong, u
)or payment,
n away,
'alifornia liad
spi-ak as i'>
! intelligence,
'alifornia was
there never
niter inunber
the tyranny
rrhts were so
itly look both
of will ap'l
rue follower^
ley were net
sutheient fur
'his, however,
whose mind-
lation of tin
transforniei'l
and America
Dple of XJtali
Behold even
ig somewhat
aiul German V
oasis, do they

.^ not keep faithful vigil over what they deem the
m liighest and holiest gifts that ever deity delivered to
1 man? And is not their material improvement to
I some extent the outgrowth of their steadfast devotion
to their religion?

In society and morals the early days of Nevada
were a counterpart of the early days of California.
As illustrative of the attitudes of law, when law with
slow step and solemn demeanor drew nigh, and that
])0])ular sentiment which in border communities seizes
so (|uickly the throat of a difficulty, there is told a
story of one of Nevada's governors, who had pardoned
a ))erson whom the citizens had voted a rope, and had
refused to pardon another who had shot hi.'-' man, 'only
ill play like.' This did not at all suit the jtopular idea
of propriety. So the people of Virginia, wlio by this
time had acquired the name of the 'cussedest ciowd
in Christendom,' and who regai'ded It as not un-
reasonable to expect from their landlord every morning
'a dead man foi* breakfast,' came indignantly together
to fjee what should be done. After discussing the
natter potationally and at length without arriving at
nv salisfactorv conclusion, one of their number arose,
nd witliout saying a word, cut from a new rope a
ieee several inches in length, and labelling it, '*For
is Excellency/' despatched it to the govei-nor. This
as sufficient; the meeting adjourned .satislicd.
For some time after the acquisition of the country
oin Mexico by the United States Government, under
eatyof Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Nevada formed
art of the territory of Utah, from wliich it was
l»arated by Act of Congress approved March 2,
8(;i. Jkit as early as 1857 the inhabitants of
evada had endeavored to sever their connection
P'ith ]\Iurnion rule. Delegates to Washington urged
'le establisliing of a separate government. Mean-
le the discovery of silver at Vir^jcinia in the sum-
ner ot 18G9 Ijrought in a large mixed class, rougher

ENGENDERING CONDITIONS.

and inoro reckless, if })ossiblc, than that composing
the Calitornian Inferno.

A district judge apjxtinted for Utah was assigned
tliis portion of the territory, and began his duties in
18G0, but confusion and insecurity were httle lessened
thereby. Finally, on the .'jlst day of October, 18G-I,
Nevada was admitted as a state; but several years
elapsed before efficient courts of Justice succeeded
in intimidating crime, ^[eanwhilc the peo[)le wer^
obliged to administer punishment in their own way or
give the land over to desperadoes.

As early as 1848 a few families, mostly Mormons,
settled in the valleys of Carson and Washoe. In
answer to the mandate issued from Great Salt Laki'
in 1855 for the faithful everywhere who would escajn'
the destruction shortly to fall uj)i)n the gentile world
to gutlier beneath the many-wived shepherds' wings
at the city of the Saints, sacrilicing their homes,
with alacrity they obeyed; after which time the ch;ii-
aracter of the settlers of that ])ortion of the territoi v
changed. A more lawless class occupied the fariii^
which the Mormons had cultivated, antl the e\il
clement was increased l)y the overland travel which
dropped among them an occasional ruffian of the
hiirliest attainments.

The progress of settlement in the tcri'itory of Oregi ii
was slow in comparison with that of almost all otlui'
portions of tlie west, but it was sure and ]X'rmaneiit.
The arts and usages of civilized society introduced l>v
the Hudson's ]^ay Company and continued by thf
Northwest Company were simple and crude; and
those of the agricultural settlers who succeeded the
fur-hunters were but little better.

Far different froni the hot-house development I'f
California, Idaho, and Nevada was that of Oregon ninl
Washington, if we except the comparatively smnll
mining districts within these territories. While the
former were rioting in their easily acquired wealth,

THK NORTH PACIFIC COUNTRY.

t compoHinj;"

^vas assigned
his duties in
ittle lessened
L'toher, 1804,
several years
20 succeedei I
people weri'
r own way tn'

ly Mormons.
^Vaslioe. Ill
at Salt Lake
would escajii'
ovntile worlil
)herds' win,L;>^
their homes,
ime the chui-
the territoiv
ed the I'ariu-
uid the evil
travel whi<li
Liftian of till'

orvof Orea'«'ii
iiost all otlu I'

I permanent.

ntroduced liv

inued by 11 if

crude; and

uccoedcd the

velopment I'f
t' Orejxon .'ind

ativcly sni.iU
Wiiile Ihc
uircd wealtli,

o-and.liiin-, drinkinir, speeulatino-, flin^nng their big bags
of g(jld-(hist hither and thither as if it was of all things
the least valuable, tlu; territories north were }tlo\ving
tluir tough acres and plodding over their severe task
of subjugating nature. Little foothold erime had
tliere. TliLie was nothing to steal. Cattle were not
worth much; the ground could not be carried away;
au<l houses were so far a}iart, and savages so bad, that
thi' horse-thief would be more likely to starve than to
get ;i\\;iv safely with his jdunder. So that during the
time the mining states were suifering so severely from
the inroads of crime, tlie agricultural states of the
Pacific were almost wholly exem[)t. Nevertheless
iitful s])asms of arbitrary justice broke forth at in-
tervals in the staid cold-water state.

fdaho belongs to what was once po])ularly called
the I'ppei' Country, aboriginally occupied by dusky
rices which tji" :t l)ecame l<nown to I'^uropeans througli
the adventurous trapj)ers who ]>enetrated those wilds.
Ijv the magic ])ower of gold, discovered on the banks
of the Pen d'Oreille Kiver by a French Canadian in
I s j'J ; discovered in yet greater (|uantities at Oro Fino
by a ])artv of eleven men in the summer of 18G0, this
wilderness was opened to civilization.

l'\)llowing the discovei-y of gold at Oro Fino,
twenty-live j)ersons wintered at that }>lace, cut oft*
from all intercourse with the world without. The
s[)ringof 18(!l saw two individuals on their way to the
new gold-lields, and emigration led to the linding
of rich placer mines at Florence, on the tributaries of
Salmon River, at Warren's Diggings, and elsewheie.
By the 1st of January, 18(13, twenty-five hundred
men had found their way into Boise Basin, the largest
and richest placer-mining region discovered up to this
time outside of the limits of the valley of California.
To the first town established in Boise Basin was given
the elegant and euphonious name of Hog'em, after-
ward changed to Pioneer City. In Boise Basin are

ENGENDERING CONDITIONS.

hil!

\U,i'

likewise the towns of Centruville, Placerville, and
Idaho City, at first called Bannock City. About
thirty miles south-west from Idaho City, on the Boise
River, is Boise City. In the southern part of the
territory were the quartz and placer mines of Owyhee
County, discovered in the spring of 18G3 by a pros-
pecting party from Boise Basin under one Gordan.
In the Owyhee district were Silver City, Ruby City,
and Boonville.

Up to the beginning of 18G3, Idaho, as a territorial
division of the United States, had no existence; but
drawn bv its newly found wealth to the attention of
])olitical aspirants by act of congress approved the
3d of March, 1 8G3, the territory of Idaho was created
from contiguous i»ortioiis of Washington, Dakota, and
Nebraska. It is a wild, mountainous region — the
term Idalio signifies Gem of the ISIountain-r-well fitted
for wild, roving men, but rich enough withal in those
metals that civili:^ation covets to set wrangling and
blood-lotting a goodly number of the lovers of disorder.

As early as 18G2 the people of Lewiston effected a
regular and comjilete vigilance organization. Books
were ojioned for the enrollment of the names of such
as desired to become members of the association.
Tlie list ra})idly swelled, and the Lewiston Vigilance
Committee proved a most efficient institution for the
punishment and suppression of outlawry. In other
localities, also, the people found it necessary to organ-
ize for mutual protection almost as soon as they had
come too-ether.

Montana was once a part of Idaho, and nowhere
were popular tribunals more necessary or their execu-
tions more numerous. Colorado, likewise, during the
earlier develojnnent of her mineral resources per-
formed anew the noM- stereotyped tragedies of the
Pacific States.

But we must go to California if we would examine
these extra-judicial phenomena in the freshness of
their first appearing.

erville, and
ty. About
,n the Boise
part of the
\ of Owyhee
J by a pros-
)nc Gordan.
Ruby City,

i a territorial
istence; but
attention of
pproved the
I was created
Dakota, and
region — the
1— well fitted
thai in those
rangling and
s of disorder,
on effected a,
:ion. Books
ames of such

association,
on Vigilance
ution for the
y. In other
:iry to organ-

as they had

ind nowhere

their execu-

!, during the

^sources per-

edies of the

uld examine
freshness of

CHAPTER IV.

SIGNIFICATIONS OF STORM.

Cada uno C3 como dios lo hizo, y auii poor muchaa voces.

Don Qnijote.

In the absence of that vis vltce which crowds out-
ward and onward progressive intelligence, there can be
no groat demonstrations of evil, except as it appears
in the form of fanatical fermentations. A comnuinity
too lazy or too stupid to improve breeds few skilled
villains.

There is scarcely an instance on record wlitn^e the
Hispano-Californians, before the advent of foi.igncr.s,
indulged in popular tribunals. The liijoH del pah, as a
rule, were in favor of letting the law, as well as every-
thing else, take its own course. Xevertheless, revolu-
ti<ju was chronic here as elsewhere throusrhout the

1 • • • •

donunion of republican Mexico. Bad governors sent
among them they resisted, and usually with success;
but their political integrity- vindicated, they left the
administration of justice to legitimate authorities.
()l>udlonee to the laws was taught them as a religious
.duty; and as they were superstitious in their religion,
So Were i\\Qy in their obedience to law. I find on
[record an incident that occurred at San Diego the
2Gth of March, 1833, which was a military move-
ment rather than a popular demonstration, thougli
frequently the two terms were synonymous. Antonio
Alipjls, private of the presidial company of Loreto,
was under arrest at the guard-house at San Diego,
when, between six and seven o'clock in the evening,

(61)

SIGNIFICATIONS OF STORM.

B-ll-.'

Tnocencio Arhallo, corporal of tlio same company, with
seven privates, all armed and mounted, rode up to ^lic
LMiard- house and demanded of the seiufeant com-
niaiidini^ the delivery of Alipsis. The sei'^^eant re-
fusing, the soldiers forced the guard-house and took
the [irisoner with them.

From 1810 to 184(!,tliat is to say during the entire
j)eriod of ^Fe'-xiean domination under the I'einiMic,
there were but six munh^s among the whiti^s in all
California. .\s in tlu; golden reign <»f iOngland's good
King Alfri'd, a log cabin could hold all the criminals
in the country. There were tlien no jails, no juries,
no sherilfs, law ])rocosses, or courts; conscience and
public opinion were law, and justice held an evenly
balanced scale. During the seven years succeeding
1850 there were in Los Angeles countv alone some
tifty murdi'is, without taking Indians into the account.
What was the cause of it.'' The native Calil'oinians
were niost of all horrilied at the change, and yet tlie
native Califoi'nians, witli the assistance and under the
tutorage of their brethren of Sonora and other parts
of northern Mexico, did mo.st of the robbing and
murdering. They M'cre horrified that 'society had
so changed, not thinking that they had changed.
The advent of foreigners, some of whom were evil-
minded, was the signal for a new departure. The
Californians were excellent horsemen; they knew all
the retreats and passes of the mountains; throughout
the entire rcij^ion the settlers were their relatives and
friends, mIio spoke their language. ]\Iany of the
Americans treated them badly; retaliation was natu-
ral and escape easy. Such is the origin of the matter.

From original documents in my possession I take
the following account of the doings of what may safely
be called the first committee of vijjilance in California.
It is, moreover, the only instance of summary illegal
jtroceedings in this territory under Mexican rule;
and this, I might say, was almost wholly an affair of
the cstraiKjerits.

mpany, with
>ile uj) to ^lio
•ijft'ant com-
sergeant re-
st' ami took

ig the ontiiv
he I'opilMic,
vhitus in all
ghuid's good
he crimiiials
s, no juries,
isfienee and
d an evenly
1 succeeding

alone some
the account.
Calilornians
and yet the
d under the

other parts
obl)in<»' and
society had
d changed.

I were ovil-
rture. The
?y knew all
throughout
jlatives and
inv of the

II was natu-
tlie matter,
sion I take
: may safely
L California,
nary illegal
xican rule;
an affair of

r,0.\HI> OF I'URUC SKCURITY. 01

To certain foreigners jnesent at the time, Temple,
rnidon, and others, rather than to the llispano-
("idilonuans themselves, this trilmnal and its calm
iind oi'drrly carriage was due. Left to the super-
stitious \vorshipi)ers of church and state, the })opular
dfUionstration had not been; or if it had occurred,
it would have Ijeen attended by gro.ss excesses,
.sucli liiiiig the character of blindness and bigotry —
cowMidicc Hrst, then insane savagery.

Oil tlu' ii«th of March, l8o7, J)omingo Foliz, a
pool' raiichiro, but a man of good repute, while on his
way from Los Angeles to his rancho, and acconi pained
by his wife, ^Faria del llosario Villa, was attacked
and slain by ( Jci'vasio Alipas, a man of notoriously bad
character, aided and abetted by tlie woman. 1^'or
some two years previous to this tinier tlui murderer
had been living in shamelessly open adultery with the
woman, and oiilv the dav bcl'ore the nuu'der had her
liusband, invoking the aid of the alcalde, been able to
se])arate lier I'rom her paramour, who swore to take
speedy vengc>ance. A committee of citizens was sent
hy the alcalde to fetch the corpse. Horror and in-
• lignation took possession of all minds, and while for
the murdered man the mercy of God was imploivd,
c\cni])larv jtunishment for his nnu'derers was debated.

Tliat night Alipils and the woman were securely
lodged in jail. Some were desirous that the criminals
should b(j innnediately executed ; but their ardor was
re-trained by the greater prudence of (others, who
reminded them that such proceedings could only bo
I'xcused on the ground of necessity, and when canied
out; with coolness and in accordance with the rides
and ])iinciplcs of strict justice.

The wisdom of these suggestions was acknowledged,
and the threatened outbreak checked. On the aoth
the iuueral of Feliz took place, and the occasion gave
rise to a renewal of the popular clamor. Nothing
but the assassination was talked of, and the sentiment
was fully ajiproved that an example was necessary to

SIGNIFICATIONS OF STORM.

prevent the possible occurrence of similar crimes.
But holy week was at hand, and it was thought it
would be tantamount to sacrilege were the blood of so
foul an assassin to stain the remembrance of that most
solemn of tragedies. Therefore the first work-day
after caster, which would be the 6th of April, wa>
fixed on as that of the execution. A heavy storm
which raged during the whole of that day made post-
ponement necessary, but on the 7th, at an early hour,
the most respectable men of all classes of the com-
munity assembled at the house of John Temple.
A Junta Dcfensova de la Segundad Puhlica, or
Board of Public Security, was organized. Victor
Prudon, by birth a Frenchman, but a naturalized
citizen of Mexico, was chosen president. Manuel
Arzaga, ex-secretary of the town council, was elected
secretarv, and a retired officer of the arniv, Francisco
Araujo by name, appointed military commandant.

On taking the chair Prudon said that the aims
of the junta were laudable and beneficial, just as
well as necessary; that they had their origin in
the groat underlying priiiciple of natural law, self-
preservation ; that oven the government must acknowl-
edge that tliis action wan a necessary compliance with
duty; while the result might be the establishment in
the territory of what tlie people had earnestly and
repeatedly asked for, a superior tribunal clothed with
full powers to supplement thorough investigation by a
final sentence in all grave cases of crime. He con-
cluded by recommending order, the preservation of
which was their chief end, since they were defenders,
not ofl^enders. Speeches were also made by the
military commandant and others, and lengthy reso-
lutions, embodying sentiments akin to the above,
unanimously adopted. It was then determined that
both the man and the woman should be shot. The
junta was declared to be in permanent session until
such time as the object which called it into beinuj
should be accomplished, and measures to that end

ACTION OF THE JUNTA.

ilar crimes,
thought it
blood of .so

f that most

it work-day
April, was

leavy storm
made post-
early liouv,

3f the coni-

hn Temple.

Piihlica, or

ed. Victor
naturalized

it. Manuel
was elected

y, Francisco

Liandant.

it the aims

ial, just as

r origin in
1 law, selt'-

istacknowl-
liance with
ishmcnt in

mostly and

othed with

gation by ii

He con-

orvation of

defenders,

dc by the

gthy reso-

the above,

lined that

hot. The

ssion until

into beini,^

that end

rcTC after discussion unaniinousl
two oVloek a sub-committoi

V concurred m.

itl

f th

■-*

)e, with a copy ot tne
resolutions, waited on the alcalde, who tliereupon
Iconvened the town council. At three o'clock, no
Iconnnunication liaving been received from the al-
caMe, a message was sent by tlie junta to that official,
inotifving liim that the time allowed for his action had
Relapsed, and iufornung him that the resolutions of the
uiita were about to be carried into oT-.'ct. No answer
,vas returned; but the second alcalde, accompanied
iby the treasurer and another member of the council,
ppeared bifore the junta and desired to be informed
if that Ix^dy I'ccognized the legally constituted author-
ties, and if so, wliat might bo the significance of this
llegal assembly of armed men. The former question
as answered in the affirmative, and the answer to
he latter, the magistrate was Informed, was contained
in the resolutions which had been sent to the first
alcalde.

At liair-])ast three, by order of the junta, peaceable

possession of the guard-room of the jail was taken.

No answer had yet been received from the first alcalde,

it hough he had sent a mend)er of the council to invite

he president of the junta to a conference, to which

t'i|uest answer was made to the eU'ect that, apart from

he Junta, the pros! lent was not at liberty to enter

nto negotiations. At four t)'eloek both alcaldes made

heir a]i[)eaiancc before the junta; a resolution of the

ouiicil ('ondemnatory of the proposed illegal action

ts rrad, and an attempt made to dissuade the junta

roiu its puri)ose. Convinced that their efforts' were

•less, the authorities withdrew, after enjoining on

linsu jiresont the preservation of order, anil receiving

he assurance that all measures necessary to that end

lad been taken.

Hepeated messages requesting his presence for
piritual i)urj)oses in this connection at Los Angeles
lad been sent to Father Cabot of San Fernando,'^ but,
although he promised so to do, he did not come.

Toi'. Tmi)., Vol. I. 6

)

SIGNIFICATIONS OF STORM.

The junta would wait no longer; the confession of
the criminals must be dispensed with.

The military commandant was more compliant
than the alcaldes; he caused arms to be given to tlic
firing party, and gave orders necessary to the occcosion.
At halt-i)ast four the president of the junta ordered
Alipas to be brought forth for execution. Already
his irons had been filed so deeply that a single blow
of the hammer released his hands. The man was
then shot, and after him the woman. Thus solemnly
was j)erformed this first summary act of justice in
California.

Mr John S. Hittell, as related in his Iliston/ of S(i,>
Frdncisco, was informed by Jacob P. Leesc that early
in 1836 one Verdugo applied to the alcalde of ].(;s
Angeles for an order to recover a deserted wife. Tlir
order was grantetl and the wife recovered. On th
way to his rancho Verdugo was murdered by the wife
and lier paramour. The nmrderers were taken, triid.
and executed by the people, the alcaldes, Maiiud
Ile(]U(!na and Abel Stearns, intcr})osing no objections.
Probably Mr Leesc referretl to the same affair the
account of which I have ju.st given.

Although gold was found by ^Marshall at tlio
Coloma saw-mill in January, 1848, it was not until
midsummer that the people of California would Ik-
lieve the discovery worthy their consideration. AVhcn
fully alive to its importance they dro}>ped their several
occupations and set out for the Sierra Footliill-
Everybody went. First the settlers and immigrants:
fur-hunters turned to hunting gold, and the Monn(iii>
paid Mannnon their respects for the moment. TIkii
Benicia, Sonoma, San Francisco, San Jose, .nul
]Monterey were quickly depopulated. And as the
ti(Ungs travelled southward, ami bags of the wor^liip
ful dust were displayed to the gaping crowds, Inn-
(jf diggers were formed from more distant pLtres.
Many of these persons were known to each otlar:

Tin: cm: AT gold discovkry.

confession of

irc complianl
; given to tlie
) the occasion,
junta ordered
ion. Alreaily
a single blow
The man was
rhua solenuilv
; of justice in

niston/ of S(t,i
2eso that cavly
ilcalde of Lis
ted wife. Tli<
cred. On th
•ed by the wife
re taken, tried,
paldes, Mamal
no objections,
anie alVair tho

irshall at the
was not until
lia would loc-
ation. ^VlK•n
<l their sovi'ial
rra Footliill>.
id immigrants;
the Monu<ni>
onient. Tlun
an Jose, Mini

And as tlio
f the worshii'-

crowds, lini>
iistant pliirt's.
:o each otlar:

fw ((f tliem were wholly unknown; most of them

were resjKctaltle. They wore not thieves, but honest

nieii, who had come into this bright wiMcniess to dig

fill- gold, and not to defraud their neighbors. Peace-

nltlv ami in the primitive way cacli for himself i)icked

the ]»reeiou.s suhstance from river-beds and crevices,

washed it from the sands that lined the streams, or

ifcoiight a spot in which to dig tor it, with no desire to

■cneroach on ground chosen by another. Rights w^ere

respected; theft was unknown. A pick or shovel

thrown upon the ground, sticks driven into the earth,

or a written and posted notice to the effect that a

■certain spot was elaimod, was sufficient to secure it

against all comers. Miners lived nuich in the open

ail-, in cloth tenements, or under bushes, or in rude

huts, yet they left tiieir goUl-dust in bags or bottles

miguai'ded in their tiMit or cabin. The merchandiso

of the trader was secured only by walls of cloth which

might b(.' opened with the greatest ease at night by

means of a pocket-knife. Goods stacked up by the

roadside, miles from any mining-camp, remained un-

Misturhcd for weeks or months. Horses and cattle

;wi'ie safe on ranehos or by the roadside. So in tlie

I tow lis wliich sjn-ang suddenly into existence, the

irig'.its of projierty were respected, with no thought of

penalties. After the winter rains had ceased and

watei- for washing gold had disappeared, in certain

localitit^s piles of rich dirt were thrown up, like garden

b (Is. to he washed out when rain should come again.

Till High often the result of great labor, and containing

iiiueli wealth, these heaps lay undisturbed throughout

the summer, and when autumn came fell to their

fright I'll! owners. Differences of opinion were settle«l

by 'leaving it to the crowd.' The ima^e of a }>atron

saint was nut more safe from desecration at the hand

ot its tlevoteo than was the property of miners from

rohhcry hy brother miners. "Men have frequently

al)out their ])ersons thousands of dollars' worth of

this gtdd," writes General Mason in his official report,

fiiilf)

il'lii^!'

flt SIGNIFICATIONS OF STORM.

"and it was to mo a matter of surprij>c that so pcaco-
i'ul and (juiut a state of things should continue to
exist." And so it was tlie first comers found luiv
less discord than existed anywhere else in Christen-
dom. Would all men were honest; would that ser-
pents had never cre[)t into this Eden I

.Vt the seaport vessels arrived faster than tluir
eargt)es could find accommodations on shore, a?id giciii
(luantities of merchandise of all kinds was discluugtil
and piled up ;dong the beach, all around Yerha B'i< iia
Cove, from Clark Point to Kincon Point. Much (■!'
this mercluiadise Avas valuable, and all of it wholly tx-
[tosed. Yet all this time there w'as scarcely a luck
on the door of any dwelling, store, or warehouse iu
the town of San Francisco. JJuriu; >• this trulv "-oldeii
a<:fe of lair intcijrity it seemed never to occur to these
honest folk that tlx.^re W(!re any in tlie world \\]\i>
wanted wrongfully to take IVom tliem their jtrojieity.
A resident assures me th'it tlieio was but one case
of theft at San Francisco prior to ()ctt)ber, lM-19. A
Mexican stole some Maiikets from Pollard & ]>;i!i-
dalTs yard, on Clay street, for which he was publicly
whipped on the plaza.

Vet earlier than, this San Jos«j struck a niiini;
blow for legitiniato jusftice. Thomas Fallon, in
coming down from the mines to San Jose, canlul
t\vent\-iive hundred dollars in gold-dust secntr.l
about his person and seven oui\ces in his pocket^
On the '22d of .December, 1848, he camped near Sai;
.loso Mission with three Americans, whose a]»|n;i>
a nee he thought suspicious. He talketl with them iii
a confidential way and told them lie liad been von
successful in mining; that ho had started with fiii-
sideraljle gold, ijut a few days before had sent :i
man forwa?-d with all his money to i)Uy cattle. T!i<^
traded horses, Fallon giving them six out <n tli'
seven ouiict?s which tlu^y supposed t(» be all he Iki'I
The Americans or

rocee(

led on tiieir wav au'l oveitnoK

tw(j (jl^vruuius with iiuht tluAisand dollars, whom tin.'

W"i'

ABSENCE OF LAW.

that so peaco-
1 continue \'<
rs fouiul lifiv
. in ClirisUn-
auld that sd-

xr than tluiv
lorc, and gn^t
^vas (hrtchar;4t "l
LlYcihaB'Mia
)int. Miu-U nf
jf it wh(illy fx-
scarcely a I'hk
r warehouse iu
lis truly goldi-'U

0 occur to thua'
the world wIk'

1 their itr(.]>city.
ftf3 hut ono »'.'>'■
toher, 1H40. A
Pollard & H;'i>
he ^^as puhluly

struck a maui;
iiuxrt Fallon, i"
an Jose, carvii'l
l-dust secvrtv.l
in his pockot'
anipcd near Sai;
whoso a]i]";i'
h1 with tht'iii ;.'
had hocn vi"'
tartod with •" ''•
ore had sriit ;i
uy cattle. Tlu^
six out <>i ''■
t,, !,o all hv 1':"'
vav and ovevtn' '^
ilars, whoia l!i^}\

shct, killini^ one, the other, though wounded, escaping
to San Jose. He re])orte(l his adventure, and searcli
J^'iis at once made for the rohhcrs, who were caught
Jwitliin a lew days. They were taken to the alcalde's
couit. wluro one of them confessed numerous crimes,
»i<l said lliat Fallon saved his life hy misleading
hem to the l»elief tliat in the horse-trade he had used
tli<' money that ho had left. They were all hange<l
Ml the plaza three days later, in January, 18-Jl).
^vnn this time crime a!>out San Jose increased, and
ixtM'iitiMiis there hccan\e numerous.

Dining the autumn of 1848 tliore were no such,
lings iiiong the Sierra Drainage as government, law,
iv.-courts, statutes, constitutions, legislaturt!s, judges,
icrili's, tax collectors, or other otiicers of the law.
Jl were ithsohitely free; all were thrown upon their
)(•(( hc.JHiAior. And here appeared in its fullest ap-
llication the socioh)gical law of non-resistanco in the
bseuco of restrnint. Coercion implies antij>osition.
It is wliCM placed under lock and key that tlie stiougi.st
icsiii' to t.'scape is manifest, (.'oiitinc the insane and
jiey an; frantic; unlock the doors and knock off their
^ttt-rs, and nine tenths of those most uiu'uly under
;straint heccane tractahle. Crime is lessened, n«^»t as
imisiinunt is severe, hut as it is certain. French
^hncl-lioys tmdtjr a system of esoioiiage become ti'icky,
[hile Engli.sh boys who are less governed beliave
jttci'. Debts of honor are usually preferretl to tlioso
\v paynniit of which may be legally enforced. When
)1«1 was the cuirency of California and legal-tender
a (liscitiiiit, indebtedness to sona; extent was })vyond
^e icach of law and the courts, and the instances
M'' (wn paratively rai'e vv'hcrc an account was can-
tlied wuli the dejtrcciatcd currency. The jiencil
Mnoianda of mcnd)ers of the stock boanl are as
nding as theii- Mritten, signed, and scaled obligation,
these earlier ijold-huntinu' davs .strauLjers met as
most iurii, and a i'cw hours' acquaintance often
irliet'd to estahlish contidencc\ In the absence of

ill

i,:''-

SIGNIFICATIOXS CF STOR^^.

written law the higher law of probity governed inter-
course. Nevertheless, as it pleased the Almighty tn
make with the good men some few deserving i\w
halter, it is meet these latter should have it with tin
least possible ceremony.

However all this maybe, it so happened about tlii>
new society that with Law came Satan. Alcalde
courts were continued in the larger towns atUr
American occupation, and in the mines local justici
and constables were choson. But the diufj^ers luiil
little heed to them. They were preoccupied aiul
migratory; let the devil look to his own. Even tli
merchants of San Fi-ancisco seem never to liav
thought of bolts and bars, until one day James Xoali
iished up a lot of old locks sliipj)cd by a shrew; 1
Englishman on board a vessel whicli broui,dit to 'lui
shores a score or two of Australian convicts. AVIh :i
j)eople began to lock their doors, thieves began 1 1
steal. Wiiy were goods bolted in, they might ask,
if thcv were not to be stolen; and what were loelv?
for if not to be broken by thieves?

This coming of the rascals — I su])pose it mui-^t K
talcen in common with everything else that is, as Ini
the best. Their influence on California, on lli
clinracter of the men wlio made society, was mar';" 1
and perpetual. Good men are made stronger by tl:
presence of bad men; else the kingdom of evil Imi
been long since overthrown.

Criminals and convicts, as wo have seen, vv^cre nut
the first to come. Thcv were not among tlie iiiit>t
intelligent or enterprising of those wlio heard of {\w
wonderful disco\'ery, and lience were not the iirst t"
move. ]^ut in due time it dawned U})on their iniinr
that a gold-yielding wilderness without jail or gallow-
nnist be the very paradise of thiexes. And as ii
preiaeditated villainy might hv sanctified by nuniluis.
with the nmltitudes of honest and Drderduving uku
hither came in crowds from the purlieus of criim.

SOCIETY IX THE MIXES.

from convict colonies, human reptiles, ci!iptyin<]f cities
of their shun, and trailing their slimy course through
lour lair \ alleys and into the newly occu})icd canons,
ready to sacrilice the here and the hereafter, if need
I be, so they might, like Ethan Brand, achieve the
unpardonable sin. In their simplicity the previous
I occupants of the Foothills might have asked with old
I Nestor, "Pray, friends, are you pirates?" But there
was plenty of gold in the gulches to be had for the
"athcring. When it could be picked from crevices
and river-beds, and washed from bars and banks, what
inducement v/as there to steal it? All the same, the
better-minded leai'ued all too soon that there Avere'
those ill the world who loved to steal, even when
ll()^e^;ty beiter served their avarice. There was
enticement in the thought, excitement in the effort,
j;»y-tinglings attending success, and in case of fail-
ure— wliy the best of us have soon to make our final
reckoning with ^^ime.

With the classic days of 1840 came new jiilgrims, a
thousand ship-loads of them, by sea and land. So
that midsununer saw in the towns which had so
f^uddenly assumed pretentious pro])orti()ns, and in the
long line of mining-cam))S which had risen like Jonah's
goui'd aloJig the Sierra JJrainage, hordes of eager njen
(tf every nation, color, ami caste under heaven. There
wwe honest men and knaves, pious men and blas-
]ilie!ners, learned and ignorant, rclined and l>rutish,
humane and merciless. Every trade and profession
w;is represented — lawyers, doctoi-s, and preachers;
thieves, iimrdercys, and gambliTs; bakers, liar-keeju'rs,
and butchers; loafers, highwaymen, and pi'i/.e-lightei-s;
lioisi-iockeys, bankers, pedtllers, grocers, and black-
smiths -a human mess which even Mercury would
doselv eve before i)itc!iing them into Charon's boat;

these. nia(K' sj)icy by a sprinkle of female frailly,
com|)riseil the population. Jhit by i'ar the hiiger
))art were order-loving men of pronouncx'd morals
Add to these those of passable iiiten-

and inte<nitv

ufi

,1". •

72 SIGXmCATIOXS OF GTOIIM.

tlonR and ctllhy lionosty, who never take what they
cannot roach, nor indulge in drink stronger than
strychnine vvhi.skey, nor bet more than a dollar at
nionte on Sunday; who attend church when houses
of ill -lame are closed, and whose word is as g(jod as
their bond because neither is worth anything — throw
into the scale on the side of virtue this \av*fo i)ur<j:a-
torial element of soi-disant good men, and the genuine
lirst-class villains of the true metal and clear ring were
comparativel}' few.

]>ut these caused trouble enough. Landing at Sail
Francisco, they usually first made the tour of t!ie
mines and there formed the acquaintance of otluf
gentlemen of their profession, whose projects they
were by this time quite ready to join. And in this
new Held of enterprise everything seemed to favor
them. Besides congenial companionshij), and the ab-
sence of strong government, the physical as[)ect of
afilurs was all that the most ambitious could desire.
The nature of the wealth for which all were strivin;^,
gokUMi; the constant moving from place to place of
miners and traders, and the intermixtures of strangeis,
all tended to vliscourage inquiry, to facilitate tli'i
operations of outlaws, and allow them to move quickly
from [)lace to place without exciting suspicion. In
particular, the lonely and exposed condition of tl)j
roads throuuhout California, and the lan>'e amounts
of treasure constantly ]>assing over them, oft'eiid
alluring opportunities for highway robbery; and while
tliesti opportunities were not wliolly neglected, yet I do
not know that tliis crime has at any time prevailed to
a greater extent here than in any other sjiarsc ly
settled countiv. Stage-robbiiig as jiractised by the
j)roiossi()n in California, win iiither a chivalrous occii-
])ation; the gentlmnen of the road risked their li\i';;
for whatever ha{)pcnc;d to be in the express-box, and
if no opposition was made tUey generally c(jntenti>l
themselves v.-itli this, and neither robbed nor insulli J
the [)assengers.

1 1 ft

;c what tlicy
troiigor than
1 a dollar at
when houses
is as ^<K)il as
:hing — thn)\v
lai-go jmi'i^i-
1 the j^eiiuiiii!
oar ring wore

inding at Saii

tour of t!iL'

nc'o of otlui"

[)rojcots they

And in this

incd to favor

), and the al>-

[cal as[)oct nl'

couhl dosir'.

^veru striviu'j,',

to place nl'

', of strangcis,

facilitate tli'^

move quiclcl y

iis])icion. la

dition of tlu

irt>e amounts

hem, olfeitil

y; and wlii'o

cted,yet I <!i'

) prevailed lo

her sparsely

•tised by t!i«

valrous occu-

m1 their livrs

•ess-l)ox, and

ily content 1*1

nor iuiiidltJ

CKIMIN.VL QUARTHUG. 73

Along these roads, during the heavy winter rains
of 1841> ;")(), were hundreds of mired wagons, laden
with supplies for the miners. Such was the nature
of the soil, so cracked with dryness in the sunnner
and so spongy soft in winter, that in the absence
of a beaten track a loaded wagon would sink to the
hubs almost anywhere about the skirts of the Foot-
hills.

1 fence arose two causes stimulating crime; the
mining-camps were short of provisions, and the sup-
])lies intended for them were left exposed as a tempt-
ing bait to the hungry and forlorn. Add to this that
by I'eason of the extreme wetness of the season the
streams were so swollen that miners were driven from
their elaims, so that thousands, 'dead-beat and broke,'
as thi'V would sav, were obliijed to take rel'ui'e in the
towns and ijet thronu'li the winter as best thev could.
The epoch of crime in the interior may be said to
(lute from this time, and to have originated in a great
measure from these causes.

Sometimes in the spiiit and with the grace of
young bull-dogs, these adventurers of evil would
beM-iu tjieir grnibols iinmetliately they came ashore;
watching, for examj)le, the landing of their ca[)tain,
vJio liad incurred their disi)leasure during the Noyage,
Seizing and (lucking and beating him, if indeed they
idid not kill him outright.

The lOnglish convicts from Australia, who from the
jspi'ingof isp.) to the sunnner of 1852 were the worst
Uliiieiit intesting the ccmununity, made their head-
(jiiaiteis in San Francisco, at the base of Telegraph
llill, neai' the foot of Broadway. On one side rose the
hill, broken and rugged, thr(3wing out spurs in various
'(hreetioiis, and presenting in ])laces to the ripi^ing tide
a lt»{ty hhitl" on wliese sunnnit even the S(juatter ha 1
not yet ventured to perch his eyry; round the base
and up the little ravines were huts and tents not nuich
larger than kennels, and divers -fashioned dw« Uinga

SIGNIFICATIONS OF STORM.

Jfa

huddled or scattered indiscriminately among low caba-
rets, and dance and drinking houses.

The rendezvous of the thieves, in the heart of this
district, was called Sydney Town. South-west of
Sydney Town was Little Chile, and farther yet in the
same direction China Town; the Hispano- Americans
cijngregating about Dupont, Kearny, and Pacitic
streets, and the Chinese at the intersection of Sacra-
mento and Dupont streets. Although Little Chile
supplied the comnmnity some criminals, the Hispaiio-
Americans were more a worthless and vagabond pjopk
than a vicious people. They were the early victims of
evil-minded Americans and the men of Sydney. In
Sydney Town during the day schemes were concocti;!
to be worked out during the night. The meetiiins
had their orators, and the pillaging parties thuii
leaders. Singly or in pairs they would perambulate
the unlighted and unwatched streets, robbing, du-
molishing, or murdering, as passion or fancy dictated.
They had a way of enticing or forcing their victims to
some eminence bordering the Bay, and thence hurliiii:
them to their death. The beach round the nortluiii
point of the peninsula was at one time little belter
tlian a golgotha, for the human bones washed uji there
by the tide or buried by the sand.

After the fire of May 4, 1851, more than ten
thousand dollars' worth of stolen property was re-
covered from these dens. Such a conflaLifration to tlie
thieves was like the finding of a carcass to vultures:
from their cesspool of corruption they swarmed in to
take advantage of the misfortune of otheng, to pluck
the unfortunate of the few eft'ects they had been able
to save.

And at the country towns it wcs proportionately
bad. These same malefactors, or others, would meet
in some suburban tent and there conspire against the
well-being of a society preoccupied, unorganized, ami
unprotected.

Upon the surface of society there did not all at

ADVENT OF CRIME.

once ajipoar the feriiR'ntatiou fining on beneath. And
vlien i'l'oni tlie nuiss <(as-bubl)Ie.s were seen to rise,
they wei'e lij^jlitly re<.jarde(l as the monientary caprice
of liannlcHS (/nidnnnci. Gradually however the sac-
charine suhstance in this element of society iiudor-
went ( •hanL,^e,and the alcoliol and acid of open villainy
was only too soon apparent.

If we except a few irregularities in various parts
of the countrv, we mav date the advent of violence
in niidsuinnier, 1S40. The won^'or is that it did not
apjiear sooner; that the widely diverse and hetero-
j^eneous inj^redients of this mixture did not sooner
act on each other; that ignition and explosion did
not more (piichly follow.

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

{./

1.0

I.I

1.25

IM IIM

IIIIIM IIIIIZ2

IM ^

Ilia 11 2.0

U 1 1.6

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. M5B0

(716) 8724503

(/.

CHAPTER V.

THE HOUNDS ASSOCIATION.

Prince Henry. Where shall wc take a purse to-morrow, Jack?

FiU'ilrijf. Where thou wilt, lad; I'll make one; an I do not, call mo
villain and baftlc me.

Pr'ufa lleiiry. I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying to
pursc-takiug.

Fuldiiff. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tia no sin for a man to labour
in hia vocation.

King Ilcnry IV.

Every problem of humanity is but a display of
some now combination of those primary elements
of human nature which, like the elementary principles
governing matter and force, underlie all activities.
Common salt will not crystallize on the same system
as sulphate of soda; so units of human societies in
their intermixtures behave differently according to
character and combination. Yet man -particles, in
their aggregations and evolutionfj, act no less under
fixed laws than do matter-particles.

Not the least unaccountable of human phenomena
is that manifestation of brute force which breeds
tyranny. That men should love to beat, and l)atter,
and bruise one another, not to secure some good, but
in spite of those evils which such conduct is sure to
bring upon them, is unaccountable, save as an ele-
mental quality of the evil principle inherent in nature
human. The propensity in man for killing is insane
as compared with tlic same propensity in the brute.
Tlie latter could give a reason if it would; man has
none. The reasoning faculties given him by whicli to
guide his conduct in ultimate appeal he flings aside,

(70)

ORGANIZATIOX OF VILLAIXY.

dehumanizes himself, and no matter how far advanced
in hohncss of living or in intellectual culture, he
thrusts his fingers into the latest invented claws fur-
nished him by science, and straightway falls to flesh-
tearing on such a scale as puts to blush the efforts of
the tiger and the bear.

The brute creation man kills for food and clothing —
material comforts; his fellow man he kills for pride,
for glory, for hate, for religion — ideal comforts. War
is waged with equal fervor by savage and civilized, by
heathen and Christian. It is an element alike of the
most degraded passion and the most exalted piety.
In mediaeval times the attention of mankind was
divided not unequally between the arts which cherish
life and the arts which extinguish life. One's whole
duty lay in preserving one's own life and in striving to
take the life of one's neisxhbor. So lonjx as tliese
efforts were evenly balanced, and their necessity fell
alike on all, no great progress could be made in the
arts of war, or advancement in the arts of peace.
Whensoever for a time peace reigned rejoicing, the
arts of war were pluralized, so that with them if he
would man could achieve a yet more substantial peace.

So it is with regard to the supremacy of justice.
But mankind will not yet have unadulterated peace
or justice. There is in every one of us an inquisitor.
Where is the patriot who would not tyrannize if he
could? Where is the zealous religionist who would
not, possessing the power, and left to the impulses of
his own fanaticism, make every man of his fiiith or
creed? else he would for Christ's or Maliomet's sake
nominally, though in truth for his own sake, kill him.
Evolve man if you will from matter; that which dis-
tinguishes him from any lower form is this unanalyii-
able intermixture of deity and deviltry.

The memorable year of 1840 had not yet dawned
when it was whispered that villainy was banding in
California. Strange to say, its first appearance here

liri

THE HOUNDP. ASSOCIATION.

was in the liabilimcnts of charity. That delectable
troop, the regiment of New York volunteers, was
made u[) to a great extent of the riffraff' of eastern
cities. Of no value at home, they were brouglit liither
at ))ublic expense to fight Mexicans, or Californians;
v/]iich being found unnecessary shortly after their
arrival the company was disbanded. Having no occu-
])ation, and averse to labor, naturally many of them
fell back on their old pastime of pilfering.

The opportunity, however, to season their rascality
with a little sentiment was too good to be lost. Had
they not shared as brothers the dangers of the deep ?
Were they not brave men, soldiers, heroes, though they
had never fired a gun; and did not the country owe
them a debt of gratitude which sanctified any villainy?
So tliey organized themselves into a kind of benevolent
association, a self-protection and relief society, and
called themselves the 'Hounds,' which was a very
appropriate name. They were likewise known as tlio
'Boys,' after the fashion of the New York Bowery,
wliero many of them used formerly to sun themselves.

Criminal intent does not appear as a part of their
original purpose; indeed, as the alcalde Leavenworth
testifies, some of them had been employed by him to
assist in carrying out the ends of justice. Previous
to the forming of that acquaintance which led to
villainous vows of friendship and fidelity, and nothing
loth to wear for a time the garb of respectability,
many of them at first engaged in various occupations,
such as mining, blacksmithing, hotel and saloon keep-
ing, but they were not long content to work for that
which they fimcied they could more easily steal.
Indeed, one of their fundamental principles, practised
before it was formulated, and the first and broadest
plank in their platform, was that others should feed
and clothe them. The workingmen of California, the
honest and industrious, should furnish them shelter,
with strong drink, tobacco, and other luxuries. In
return for which support, did California desire the

THE TENT OF TAMMAXY.

interloping^ 'Greasers' annihilated, they "were the
boys to do it." Or lacking such patronage they would
exercise their club diplomacy somewhat on their own
account. Like bulls infuriated over red, they had their
mad color. Black was bad enough, but copper- hue
they liated, whether in the form of Mexican, Chilean,
or Chinaman. They were soon joined ))y the men of
Sydney, who now began to appear upon the scene,
and by low politicians from the eastern states, besides
the newly arriving shoulder -strikers and deserters.
Here was the scum of diverse foreign socioties uniting
amidst the ebullitions of our new society as naturally
as impure particles unite upon the surface of boiling
liquid.

Whatever may have been their intention originally,
elements like these joined under such conditions could
not long exist without evil results. Soon it was under-
stood that lawlessness and crime were the primary
purpose of the association, and by the spring of 1841)
subordinate societies with a common grip and pass-
word were scattered throuijhout the entire mininir
district of California. Here was a great power for
evil, with its fangs already at the throat of our infant
community.

As might be expected, the Hounds directed their
early attention to politics. It is by such as these
that our country is in too great a measure governed.
It is such as these that San Francisco to tliis day is
forced to support and serve. It is such as these
that too often are our rulers; we make them such,
fools that we are.

The Hounds made their headquarters in a large
tent, later known as Tammanv Hall, standing where
now Commercial street crosses Kearnv. Such was
their strength, that with unblushing impudence they
would bring to this so public a place the spoils taken
at night, and there eat, and drink, and sleep through-
out the day, with none to make them afraid. There
were other places where they used to congregate; the

THE HOUNDS ASSOCIATION.

City Hotel near by, and the Shades Saloon whose
keeper's name was Patterson. Their harem was the
valley called the 'Hollow,' near, or formin<T part of
the Chilean quarter; and the dusky nymphs thei-e
denizened by no means helped to quench the fires of
hate already burning in the breasts alike of their
countrymen and of their fairer-hued lovers.

Their time was chiefly divided between catinjjj-
houses, saloons, and clothing-stores, which were pil-
Inged for corporeal neceH;sities, and the huts of foreign
emigrants, which weie sacked and destroyed upon
princi[)lc. Their attacks were confined chiefly to
strangers, whose friendless condition forbade defence.

During the wliole period of their administration it
was the custom of these chemlicrs crindnstrie to
parade the streets on Sunday in fantastical attire, but
until toward the latter part of their term, if we omit
occasional fights and street br-awls, no open outrages
Tvere committed, though private thefts, and even
darker deeds, were frequent.

Besides their regular Sunday divertiscment. in
which they aflbctcd a sort of military discipline,
marching with flying colors, their leaders in military
uniforms, to the music of fife and drum, they some-
times improvised pranks and antics for the amusement
of the public. For a time, as I have intimated, the
actuating motive seems to have been a silly love of dis-
])lay rather than open violence. Yani ty , hcnvever, often
leads to villainy. Said Sheridan once to Lord Ht)l-
land: "They talk of avarice, lust, ambition, as great
])assions. It is a mistake; they are little passions.
A^anity is the great commanding passion of all. It is
tliis that produces the most grand and heroic deeds,
or impels to the most dreadful crimes."

In the evening after their public gambols it was
usual for the Hounds to scatter about the little metrop-
olis and throw out gentle hints, or more peremptory
tlemands, for whatever they happened to want. Like
the tiger's whelp which chases the sheep at first only

SOME OF THEIR DOIXGS.

for the sport of seeing them run, but once tasting
blood becomes ravenous for more, so these young
human Hounds began their play upon the people,
scarcely knowing what they did, but coming to grief
full quickly enough, however, as they thought. For,
growing more and more boisterous in their displays,
with increasing numbers, they began, toward the end
of their career, first to intimidate, then to assault, and
finally they did not scruple to try open robbery and
nmrder.

Under some ridiculous plea they would sally forth
from their tented Tammany, and with threats of vio-
lence extort money or goods from whomsoever they
thought prudent to attack. They would invade
saloons and call for drink, enter restaurants and hotels,
and rudely demand food, after receiving which they
would walk away without offering pay. On one occa-
sion they fed from the tables of Jules Rousson, keeper
of the United States restaurant, and gave in payment
an order on the alcalde, which the latter refused to
pay. At another time they broke down Rousson's
doors and helped themselves to food. Stores they
would enter, and selecting such goods as they fancied,
carry them away, or help themselves to whatever
they required from exposed piles of merchandise ; and
so strong had they now become that no one durst say
them nay.

Though their outrages were directed chiefly
against foreigners, they did not hesitate to attack
Americans if offended by them. Indeed they be-
came quite enterprising at last, even philosophic,
and seemed to think with Socrates that there is
something in this world nobler than mere ease and
personal safety.

A gentleman informs me that as he was passing
the Parker House one day, he saw a negro entering
the office, and a lieutenant of the Hounds just behind
him. The negro turned and accidentally touched the
rowdy with his elbow, when the fiery young knight

tov. Tbid., Vol. I. 0

■J

. i

THE HOUNDS ASSOCIATION.

whipped out his bowie-knife and cut oft' the black
man's ear.

One morning two gentlemen entered the coffee-
rooms of an old Frenchman, situated on Kearny
street, opposite the plaza, on the site since occupied
by the Jenny Lind theatre and the old city hall, and
called for breakfast. Presently in came thirty-five or
forty of the foul fraternity, hungry as cormorants, and
ordered food. Pounding the table, they callcil loud
and constantly, "waiter!" "waiterl" hurrying the poor
garcon hither and thither until he was half dead with
fatigue and fright. Meanwhile the two gentlemen
could get nothing to eat. At length the craving of
the rabble company being satiated, their leaders rose,
and stepping up to the counter, turned their backs to
it, and called out : "Fall in I Right about face I" Then
turning to the restaurateur, one of them demanded:

"How much is to pay?"

"Two dollars each," was the reply.

"Charge it to the Hounds," he said. "Left facel
Forward, march 1" and out of the door they went,
never paying a dime for what they had eaten.

Lsaac Bluxome landed in San Francisco from the
bark Madonna early in July, 1849. He brought out
with him the frame of a wooden building which he set
up in Sacramento street, between Montgomery and
Sansome, being the third house erected in that street.
Scarcely had he opened business when he was brought
face to face with that phase of crime of which he was
so soon to be the scavenger. A queer-looking customer
entered one day and began to price his goods. He
was little more than a boy, rather below medium
height, slightly built, with a pale, sinister face, and
dressed in a red woolen shirt, buff" pantaloons tucked
inside his boot-tops, a well-mashed slouched hat, and
hanging at a leather belt a pistol and a butcher-knife.
Picking up a plug of tobacco, he said :

"What do you ask for this?"

"Two dollars," said Bluxome.

AMONG THE SHOPS.

"Tliat is too much; you must not charge so much."

"That is my price; you can take it or leave it."

"Do you know who I am?"

"No, and I don't care who you are."

"I am captain of the Hounds."

"The devil you are," answered Bluxome. "Well,
you look like a hound."

The fellow did not like Bluxome or his words, and
after eyeing him for a moment he walked away with-
out further remark.

There was little system in trade at that time, either
in the kind of goods kept b}^ the merchants or in the
prices asked for them. Each dealt in whatever
happened to fall into his hands, and asked whatever
price he pleased, irrespective of that of his neiglihors.
Entering a tent store one day, where a great variety
of merchandise lay exposed for sale, a quiet, modest,
undemonstrative Hound picked up a pair of fancy
patent-leather gaiters, which he thought would set off
his somewhat small and well-shaped feet to the l)est
possible advantage. They M'ere wholly worthless, but
little stronger than paper, cost probably in New York
a dollar or two, but being brightly polished they had
caught the gentleman's eye, and as business had been
good of late he determined to indulge his vanity to
that extent. Besides, his order was coming into no-
tice more and more every day; parades were more
frequent, and it was but meet he should make a be-
coming appearance.

Seating himself on a box he took off his shoes, and
giving them a fling which sent them over behind some
goods at the other side of the tent, he took up a pair
of the glittering gaiters, drew them on his feet, and
rising and putting his hand in his pocket, demanded:
"How much?"

"An ounce," was the reply.

The dust was promptly paid down, and the nice
young man walked away no less satisfied than the
store-keeper. Next day returned his houndship. On

THK HOUNDS ASSOCIATION.

his ralni features tlierc was not visible the shghtest
sliade of annoyance, ill-temper, or disgust. Threading
his way quietl}' round the piles of merchandise stacked
upon the Hoor, he fished out his old shoes, seated him-
self on the same box, drew from his feet the shining
gaiters, now l)urst open in several places, put on his
old shoes, and walked away without saying a word.

There was one way in which these Honnt's were of
service to society. I had como near unwittingly doing
them an injustice. They were ever ready as jurors.
He who had suffered wrong, and who, remembering
the high privilege of an American citizen, sought the
remedy, might here have trial by his peers. They
were also good as witnesses, always ready faithfully
to testify in whichsoever direction they were paid.
They were good to drive oft* from lands squatters, or
rightful owners; it made no difference to them in
whom the title was vested. They were useful at the
polls on election -day, voting early and often them-
selves, preventing others from voting, and at sunset
guarding the ballot-box while it was being stufl*ed.
If you wanted a house fired, a man beaten, or a mur-
der, done, they were always at hand to servo you for
a consideration.

Nor were they without their worship and their
benefactions. If the image of Mercury, the god of
thieving craft and cunning, was not set up in their
Tent of Tammany, none the less was his spirit there
adored. Of all the world could give, this was the life
they loved. Opportunity and environment were to
them as sword and steed to the cavalier, or wine to
the lieavy of heart ; their tent was the temple of their
god, and their traffic better than winning souls. And
it was wonderful their influence on the unanchored
element then drifting on the flood-tide into this port.
What do we see in crossing the Plains? The most
stupid clod of a horse, half- starved and fagged with
travel, when suddenly surrounded by a band of wild
mustangs quickly becomes as unmanageable as they.

what: is evil, they ask.

Even tlie culture of intellect is the result of absorbed
vice, while the cftbrts of j)lo(iding virtue flow off like
water from a smooth stone.

It is bv no means certain that the advent of vice in
this infantile form was not the best thinj' which could
have happened to this young community at this time.
California were not California had her battles with
ini(|uity never been. Men who aim at respectability
become so absorbed in their moncy-gettings as to be
little better than machines, turning aside for nothing,
for neither Christ, their country, nor the devil. It
needs an enemy threatening their })et passion to unite
them. They would form no brotherhood of virtue
until driven to it by a brotherhood of vice.

Whence then the evil, these wicked ones might ask,
and of what do you pious people complain ? To make
a world nature rushes from one extreme to another;
from the extremes of heat to the extremes of cold;
from an age of fire, of volcanic lava-formations and
rivers of molten rock and skies of mineral smoke, to
an age of snow, and ice, and canon-carving glaciers.
So it is with the formation and retininjj of human
societies. It is the equalizing of extremes that
brings one ever nearer to one's rest. Then why war
with evil if it so befriend you? What is evil, oh
ye saints of prudery and conventional creeds! Can
you not see with all your stupidity and bigotry that
evil is not a concrete entity, but only a measure
denoting the absence of good, as cold is but the
absence of heat? There is no such principle in
humanity as abstract good aside from evil, any more
than in a mass of molecules attraction can exist apart
from repulsion. We are as necessary to you, })rim
fools, as you are to us. Every thing, every force,
power, quality, principle, element, or idea has its an-
tithesis, exists in duality, is twofold in its entity
and action. Like the repulsive force in matter, this
negative soul -principle acts among individuals, im-
pregnating every germ, arranging into form the

•11

M THK HOUNDS ASSOCIATION.

inolof'ulcs of society, slmpinj^ outlines and slmrpcn-
in<^ aniilos, puwhing hither and thither, l)y ini))ulses
imperceptible, individuals and grouj)S of individuals
according to the great plan of our one and universal
master.

The normal condition of humanity is a state of
well-being, else there is a speedy end to all. But
the mass needs leaven, else it is Hat and ui.profital>lc.
The princi[)le of evil dropped into it by an incom-
prehensible Almighty, the tendency of humanity is
ever after toward an equilibrium. None but baljes in
intellect talk of an indei)endent, self-existent power
or principle antagonistic to omnipotence.

When we understand the nature of heat, then we
can tell what cold is; when we comprehend the prin-
ciple of good, we will be able to understand the
l)henomona of evil. Whatever good is, the tendency
of everything is in that direction. What means
otherwise the gradual disaj)pearance of savagism,
the progress of the intellect, of morality, of religion?
Therefore if evil tends to disappear, and is surely
century after century becoming less, we may safely
conclude that with time it will be totally extin-
guished.

Now- it is well known that there is no such possi-
bility in nature, or in the imagii? tion of man, as the
total extinction of a * concrete entity. If therefore
evil is extinguishable as a concrete principle, it does
not exist. Evil as an entity does not exist; good
does. The w^orld acts upon this principle, wdietlier it
is believed in or not.

What force underlies the underlying force that
drives steamships and manufactories, the main-
springs of commerce? What is the chief stimulant
of progress? Not love of knowledge, patriotism,
philanthropy; all these are puny in their efforts at
progress. What then are the mighty powers that
move mankind? Avarice, vanity, the desire to kill
your neighbor and keep yourself from being killed;

AVARICE ALMIGHTY.

these are the god-like doings that bring to birth your
boasted brotherhoods, your acts and industries, and
wliich overspread the tliorny path with coverlets of
Christian charity. So might have reasoned these
human Hounds in their Tent of Tammany.

.■:

CHAPTER VI.

THE SAN FRANCISCO SOCIETY OF REGULATORS.

Lo, when two doga are fighting in tlie streets,
[ With a third dog one of the two dogs meets,

I Witli angry teetli ho bites him to the bone,

And this dog smarts for what that dog nas done.

Fielding.

With increased numbers and opportunities, the
Hounds Association put on new dignities. Becoming
somewhat ashamed of their canine appellation, they
changed their name to that of the San Francisco
Society of Regulators, and organized and officered
their body after the usual respectable models.

Let it not be inferred from the name, however,
that the Hounds had become guardians of the public
weal, or that this was a popular tribunal proper, or a
committee of vigilance. By no means. It was tho
good men and their affairs that this band proposed
to regulate, and not the evil-minded and profligate.
And to their assistance came now demagogues and
aspiring politicians of greater bulk than their pre-
decessors, and of more sweeping pretensions. With
settled policy and defined purpose they would go forth
conquering and to conquer. The one phenomenon
was but the natural sequence of the other. The first
association was the boyish play of vice, while tho
second walked boldly forth in the full manhood of
concrete villainy.

Wickedness the Regulators saw was in the ascend-
ant. No one appreciated better than themselves the
fertile field of opportunity. Already the seed had

Hit

SOME OF THEIR RULES.

been sown by the young imps, who seemed to lack the
ability to harvest the crop. It was for wiser heads
to utiHze their redundant resources, to give object and
direction to their knavish procHvities. The general
laxity of morals, the inefficiency and venality of law-
courts, and the apparent indifference of the best men
to the welfare of the state, all encouraged their aspi-
rations.

That affairs needed regulating was clearly apparent
to all; and the indifference manifested by business
men as to how or by whom they should be regu-
lated, emboldened the loafing element to assmiio that
duty. The first fraternity was still to fm-nish the
material. The municipal government had not hesi-
tated to use the Hounds in order to secure the
ends of justice; the Regulators now did not hesitate
to use the same instrument to defeat the ends of
justice. Thus against Justice, besmeared by evil com-
panionship, were turned her ministers, who caught
her in her own trap; as the wily wanton Vivien,
knight-hater of King Arthur's court, seduced from
Merlin his secret charm, and straightway Merlin, her
first victim, lay in a hollow oak as dead.

To the benefits offered by the Hounds in associ-
ating, the Regulators added political favors or emolu-
ments. Beside assuming knightly honors and sotting
themselves up to be redressers of pubHc wrongs, whose
mission it was to defend the national soil against en-
croachment, they proposed likewise to relieve Amer-
icans of the burdens of government, save only the
little matter of taxation, which should not be severely
felt, the people having their whole time at their dis-
posal.

An initiation fee of ten tloUars was paid on entering,
and in return each member was to bo cared for in case
of sickness, supported when penniless, and extricivted
from any trouble which by chance he might fall into.
No qualification as to character was requisite to
membership, except that it should not be painfully

«0

THE SOCIETY OF REGULATORS.

bright. The declared principles of the association
were originally easy and free enough, and in action
vhcy became more so every day.

It was a model system of vagabondage, a Platonic
republic for vagrants and blackguards, and might most
truthfully have beei: named a Society for the Pro-
motion of Vice, or a veritable Hell-fire Club. Half
a day's work at that time would secure the initia-
tory ten dollars; or if that was too much trouble,
the aspirant for membership might steal it. Once in,
happiness was forever secured. Bois tortu fait feu
droit. Protection, shelter, good-fellowship, and light
scruples; what more could profligacy ask even in
California? "It is all one to a stone," says Marcus
Antonius, "whether it be thrown upward or down-
ward."

There was little difficulty in their regulating elec-
tions, ordinances, and jurisprudence; population was
not so permanent then as now ; men were coming and
going, hurrying hither and thither, few manifesting
any interest in the welfare of the community, and
those few scarcely distinguishable. The young me-
tropolis was good for nothing but to be fleeced, and
should any person object, they must be regulated.
This so early political party in California was char-
acteristic of the times. It was the pestilential quagmire
of society; nor is the pool wholly translucent now.

For five or six months, namely, until the middle of
July, 1849, this band of ruffians exercised their terror-
isms over the community. Tlieir ways were dark at
first, and their councils secret. They were without
organization for a time, but rapidly into evil eminence
there rose from the ranks of this gang certain ruling
spirits, with one Samuel Roberts as chief, who worked
them up into a state of sucli efficiency that soon the
entire city was laid under contribution. There is little
doubt that many of their acts were countenanced by
the alcalde, Leavenworth.

One of their number, Joseph T. Downey, asserts

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.

that tlie origin of the organization was a physician's
bill against one or two of the Hounds, amounting to
some" wo hundred dollars. Having neither the money
nor the inclination to pay, they determined to declare,
among themselves at least, their position, which was
that tiio public must support them. They would be
public servants; they would pay no bills. It was
necessary that they should have more money than the
initiation fee yielded them. From rendering assistance
to the alcalde and sheriff in their deplorable attempts
at municipal government, the Regulators undertook
to administer justice on their own account. Cer-
tain of their number had been called upon to inflict
the punishment of whipping on a sailor sentenced
by the alcalde for drawing a knife on his captain.
Thereupon they undertook to whip by order of them-
selves. When the sheriff found it difficult or im-
possible to collect bills placed in his hands for that
purpose by real-estate owners, merchants, and others,
he recommended the claimants to give such accounts
for collection to the Boys, who had a way of their
own, swifter and surer than that of the alcalde, for
the settlement of differences. From the seizing of
property for the satisfaction of a debt to the seizing
1 of property for the satisfaction of themselves was but
a step, and unblushing imposition was the natural
consequence.

Thus, like the giant Caligorant, justice was caught
in its own net. Scarcely had the mines been opened,
when a strong feeling sprang up against foreigners.
Citizens of the United States deemed their rights
superior to those of foreigners, who were allowed
equally with themselves to gather gold and carry it
from the country. The soil was theiis, they said;
their brethren had fought fur it and their govern-
ment had paid for it. tip to this time there had been
no outbreak, although the determination was daily
becoming stronger and more universal to resist en-
croachment and expel foreign vagrants from the mines.

03 ' THE SOCIETY OF REGULATORS.

Against the mongrel class from Chile, Mexico, and
the other Spanish- American states north and south of
Panamd, this sentiment was most united, and so unsafe
became the situation of these foreigners that during
this summer the roads were full of them returning
from the mines. And with them came many of their
persecutors.

Upon this platform then the Society of Regulators
■was finally organized, with C. R. V. Lee as president;
W. Anderson, vice-president; J. T. Downey, secre-
tary; J. A. Patterson, treasurer; and J. C. Pullis,
steward. The aforesaid Samuel Roberts was chief
rioter and master of the military. California should
feed and clothe them, and pay them well for their
outrages. They proposed to live. They would assist
at any time the impotent authorities, if the authori-
ties wished their aid and would pay them; and they
would just as readily break the law, and defy the
authorities, if such a course best suited their pur-
pose. With the coolest impudence they asserted their
determination to protect American citizens against
Spanish-speaking foreigners, and sometimes claimed
to have instructions from the alcalde to extirpate the
Mexicans and Chileans.

Thus things stood when, on the night of Sunday,
the 15th of this same July, occurred an affair which
brought matters to a crisis. It appears that one
George Frank, a merchant, held a claim of five hun-
dred dollars, for certain commissions attendinof the
purchase of a lot on Montgomery street, against a
Chilean named Pedro Cueto, who refused to recog-
nize the obligation or pay the amount. Frank gave
the bill to the sheriff for collection. Cueto told the
sheriff he would not pay it, and the sheriff reported
to Frank.

Now it so happened that the sheriff was none other
than J. C. Pullis, who was likewise steward of the
Regulator Society. This was the worst feature in
the case, and shows how interwoven were crime and

MiVKING COLLECTIONS.

punishmnnt, when an officer of the law and an officer
of the lawless were one and the same person.

"If you will get the Boys to assist you," said
Frank to the hound-sheriff, PuUis, "I will give you
half the amount collected." Accordingly the bill was
handed to Roberts, who, pretending to have been sent
by the alcalde, called on Cueto and quietly informed
him that unless he came down handsomely, say witli
three or four hundred dollars, he would speedily be
upon him with forty men. Cueto declining to pay,
the Regulators proceeded to the avenging of justice
after their own fashion.

And here I can but call attention once more to the
singular state of law and administration which al-
lowed an officer of the law to deputize a notorious
band of desperadoes for the lawless enforcement of an
unproven claim. Of a truth it would be difficult to
say which had reached the lowest depth, law or
villainy !

On the Sunday afternoon mentioned, at about one
o'clock, the Regulators paraded in full force, with
drum, fife, and banner, and epauletted officers. There
were about one hundred of them. They were just
returned from a marauding excursion to Contra Costa,
and they determined to finish the day with deeds long
to be remembered. So swollen by hatred and excite-
ment had become the purpose of the Hound dictators,
that the matter of Frank's bill was almost lost sight
of. Their intention now was none other than to drive
all Spanish- Americans from the city as they were
being driven from the mines, and the final blow was
to be struck .u^t afternoon or evening.

Sam Roberts commanded ; and it was noticed that ho
was more than usually grave in his demeanor, and con-
cerned as to the condition and movements of his men.
Supper was taken at a restaurant, where an eye-
witness says that Sam behaved badly; that from his
former reserve he broke into angry impatience, and
to give more forcible expression to an order for a gin*

1 |r

rr,

fit''

TI:E society of REaULATORS.

cocktail appetizer, he kicked over a table and broke a
few glasses.

The company then proceeded to get up steam for
the grand assault. This was accomplished by enter-
inn; vai'ious saloons and demanding; drink and cijifars;
if not instantly and cheerfully produced, the rioters
would go behind the bar, help themselves and their
associates, then smash a few decanters and mirrors
as a gentle admonition that politeness sits as grace-
fully on a saloon-keeper before society servants as on
Belisarius befjorinor an obolus. Sam's men would
have it made simple to these knights of Bacchus
that, in the absence of awe-inspiring lex scripta, there
was nothing left but to fall back upon the lex non
scripta, the unwritten or common law which underlies
all law, the which failing there was yet the lex tcdionls,
or law of retaliation, a practical illustration of which
was now before them. Expediency should be their
motto, as it is the motto of all who seek to do the
jiublic good. There is a time to pipe, and a time to
dance; a time to promise, and a time to perform —
except for politicians. The fear of God should ever
be before the eyes of the people, and respect for
rulers, though from necessity or expediency they
are for the time bcinij denominated Resfulators. Fear
God; but only God manifest in the flesh, not the holy
spiritual God beyond the sky. Tempori scrviendum est.
Bow to the powers that be; bow to the sovereign
Regulators of the people; bow to the devil if so be
glorious exaltation shall follow. When personal am-
bition stalks abroad, let principle give place; Cicero
nuist choose between Pompey and Ca)sar.

There was yet another wrong which this night's
■work should right. In one of their marauding ex-
cursions some time previous, it happened that a
Chileno had the hardihood to defend his property
and family honor from brutal assaults, and in doing
so had accidentally killed a bystander named Beatty,
an American, though not a member of the band. To

ATTACK ON THE CHILEAN QUARTER. 9I

seize, confiscate, and sell to the highest bidder the
tent and efleots of one who had dared to strike a
blow in self-defence was not enough. The blood of
their murdered countryman called from the ground
for vengeance. This night should see his inquiet
shade pacified.

Sam drrnk sparingly that day; the potations of his
men he sought to regulate according to their several
capabilities. The time having arrived, armed with
pistols, knives, and clubs, and with patriotic enthu-
siasm and liquid fire, they filed off and marched rapidly
down the street to the Chilean quarter. In answer
to the question, "What are you going to do?" they
unhesitatingly replied, "We are going to whip and
drive out every damned Chileno in town."

Rousing with blasphemous yells and pistol-shots
the peaceful inhabitants of this then somewhat remote
vicinity, they attacked the unoffending foreigners as
they crawled from their dwellings, struck them down,
and beat them with clubs, stoned and kicked them
while lying half senseless on the ground, and finally,
drawing their pistols, they began a promiscuous
shooting, which resulted in one killed and several
wounded, not to mention those bruised with clubs and
cut with knives. The tents were torn down, house-
hold effects and merchandise stolen or destroyed, and
the women and children turned into the street. It
was in truth a disgraceful scene ; blood flowed freely,
and the cries of the defenceless mins-led with the oaths
of the assailants. Several mounted horses and chased
the Chilenos through the town and up Telegraph Hill,
firing on them as they ran. The tent of Domingo
Cruz, at Clark Point, remained unmolested until half
past nine, when twenty of the gang entered it witli
drawn pistols and demanded drink. Then the}' fell
to breaking bottles and beating the inmates, saying
they had an order from the alcalde to destroy every
Chilean tent in town. From the tent of Domingo
Alegria, after wounding the inmates and destroying

THE SOCIETY OF REGULATORS.

such property as they could not carry away, they
secured two thousand dollars in coin, and jewelry to
the value of fifteen hundred dollars. Then they de-
molished the tent and departed. After the first grand
assault the company split into detachments of about
twenty men each. These would make raids in diifer-
ent directions, then retire to the plaza or thereabout,
whence after a short respite they would sally forth

again.

During the turmoil Sam was ubiquitous. While
in the heat of the fray, battering heads and tearing
tents most lustily, from a distant part of the field the
cry was frequently heard: "Where are the Hounds?"
"Where is Sam ?" And the answer would come,
"Here I ami" Then they would fall to with new

vigor.

Thus during the whole afternoon and evening of
that Sunday, and all through the night until the
following morning, these desperadoes continued their
unblushing villainies without any interference from
officer or citi?:cn, extending their operations to other
parts of the city wherever a Chilean tent could be
found. They made no attempt to cover their crimes ;
daylight and darkness were one to them. Indeed there
was nothing to fear. The law was powerless; there
was no police; the alcalde was quiescent; the sheriff
was a member of the gang; and the merchants and
mechanics of the town were either attending to their
business, or enjoying a sacred rest, dreaming of dollars,
and creeping all the earlier to their beds as the
sounds of brawls and rioting fell upon their ear.

When the young metropolis awoke next morning
and rubbed its eyes, a new light seemed to break in
on its citizens. Their situation was unique; never
had they seen such sights, or heard such words, or
thought of such things as now dawned upon them.
Were they indeed where no law was? What were
these spawn of Hecate who in the name of protection
committed pillage and murder? The white owl of the

THE PEOPLE PROTEST.

north is well-nigh invisible in the snow; so it may
approach its prey unseen. In the opaque congeries
of character heaped round Yerba Buena Cove, liow
shall we distinguish the human qualities hidden be-
neath the orthodox woolen shirt and bushy beard?
Many a whilom saint is now a sinner ; many a whilom
thief sleeps in our warehouses. The ways of human-
ity in its new combination are past finding out. Circe,
the bright-haired daughter of the Sun, in her en-
chanted isle oi'JEaea amidst her fawning spell-softened
wolves and lions, was not more treacherously lovely
when with her wand she changed the companions of
Ulysses into swine, than was audacious roguery,
lapped by flush California, to the brainless adventurer.
Whether vice 's a disease or not, it is no less epi-
demic than small-pox or cholera; in this heterogeneous
human mess, if we are to know our bedfellow, give
us a new university with professors of the passions,
doctors of intemperance, analysts of licentiousness,
and curators of crime.

Young San Francisco was fairly aroused. Fear
took hold on the money-makers, and indignation;
they swore in their hearts that these things should
not be. Monday morning bright and early saw them
bent on a new business, which was nothing less than
to regulate the Regulators. And they went about it
with their characteristic energy. They had but little
time to waste at that kind of thing ; and after all a .
hundred Hounds were not many.

On the Monday following the Sunday's outrages,
at the corner of Clay and Montgomery streets Samuel
Brannan mounted a barrel and addressed the people.
As the crowd increased and the streets became so
filled with eager listeners that many could not get
near the speaker, a motion was made to adjourn to the
plaza, which was done. There Mr Brannan took his
stand on the roof of the one-story building occupied
by Mr Leavenworth, the alcalde — opposite the plaza
on Clay street, in the rear of the City Hotel — and

:1 .

Si:

Pop. Tbib,, Vol. I. 7

■■L \

'Mi

i)8

THK SOCIBITY OF REGULATORS.

there continued liis speech. After he had finished
Frank Ward addressed the meeting.

It was in very deed putting the law under their
feet ; this taking a stand upon the top of a court of
justice, and crying to the community to purify the
court and mete out justice irrespective of inefficient
formulas. It was significant of the times, and of the
people. That little tenement of legal fustian was
scarcely a feather in the way of those who now
grappled the evil which they proposed to cure. Frank
Ward was a fearless little fellow, a perfect catamount
of courage when aroused, and as pompous and ranting
as king Cambyses. Brannan, too, at this time was
full of courage and bravado. While he was speak-
ing, he was informed that the Hounds were moving
among their adherents, and threatening to burn his
property.

The eflfect of this statement on the speaker was to
make him denounce the thieves the stronger. Pale
with anger and excitement he stood before them.
They were a dangerous clement; they deemed them-
selves invincible; in their opinion they were mightier
than the law. They were now assailed from a new
-f|uarter, and their very existence depended on prompt
action; so that it was dangerous to force them to the
wall. Brannan, however, was thoroughly aroused.
Certain voices of the rabble grew louder, and presently
pistols appeared with demonstrations of shooting.
Perceiving which, Sam hurled on them a torrent of
his choicest invective, meanwhile baring his breast
and daring them to fire.

The speaking finished, the people collected were
formed into four companies of one hundred men each.
Captain Spofford was appointed chief marshal; and
of the companies Hall McAllister, Isaac Bluxome, Jr.,
A. J. Ellis, and F. J. Lippitt were chosen captains.
Lots were then drawn by the captains to determine
which company should first stand guard, the duty
being to watch the city and hunt the Hounds. The

HUNTING THE HOUNDS.

lot fell on Bluxome. Stationing detachments in va-
rious parts of the city, with ten men he proceeded to
an adobe building, corner of Broadway and Powell
streets, where he was informed Sam Roberts slept.
Breaking in the door which did not open to his knock,
ho learned that Sam was not there, but that he
had pitched his tent some way out on the Presidio
road. Thither Bluxome proceeded, but the captain
of the Hounds was not there. Others went in other
directions. Roberts was hunted everywhere. Tam-
many Hall was likewise invaded ; the nest broken up,
and several of the gang taken prisoners.

Meanwhile a number of gentlemen visited the al-
calde and requested that steps might be taken for
the restoration and maintenance of public peace.
Thereupon a proclamation was issued calling a meet-
ing of the citizens at three o'clock that afternoon, at
which time appeared upon the plaza the largest gath-
ering California had yet seen. The people were pro-
foundly moved. W. D. M. Howard was called to
preside, and Victc J. Fourgeaud chosen secretary.
At the close of loud and lengthy public discussion a
subscription for the relief of the sufferers by the riot
was opened at the Parkei' House. Two hundred and
thirty citizens then enrolled their names for police
service, and formed themselves into six companies
for immediate action. The Regulators, watching
these proceedings, now began to scatter, but before
sunset seventeen of them were arrested and secured
on board the United States ship Warren. Roberts,
the redoubtable, found snugly stowed in the hold of
the schooner Mary bound for Stockton, was arrested
by Hall McAllister, and his comrade Curley was
picked up at the Mission.

Another citizens' meetinor was held at Portsmouth
Square the same day, at which two associate judges,
William M. Gwin, and James C.Ward, were chosen to
assist the alcalde and share in the trial of the prisoners.
Horace Hawes, Hall McAllister, and others were

100

THE SOCIETY OP REGULATORS.

appointed to act for the people, and P. Barry and
Myron Norton for the accused. Twenty-four citizens
met the day followinf,' as a grand jury, and the
prisoner's were re<^ularly indicted and charged with
conspiracy, riot, robbery, and deadly assault. Samuel
Roberts and eighteen others were thus called upon to
defend themselves.

The trial began on Wednesday, was conducted in
the ordinary legal forms, and lastetl until the following
Monday. Witnesses were examined on both sides;
and the evidence of deeds done in the light of open
day, to the men who now had the management of
aftairs, did not seem difficult to obtain. Notwith-
standing which Roberts proved his alibi as a matter
of course; Peter Earl, a Parker House watchman,
swore that he put Sam to bed Sunday night, and
William Jackson knew him to have been in bed at
the time. Put it would not do; Sam was found
guilty of every charge, and eight others of one or
more counts of the indictment.

After the conviction of the captured Regulators
the question arose how they should be punished.
Some were for having them hanged, others for having
them whipped upon the public plaza and banished,
and others simply for having them banished and
given to understand that if they ever returned they
would bo executed. Roberts was first sentenced to
ten years in some penitentiary, wherever the terri-
torial governor of California should direct, and the
others were ordered punished by fine, and imprison-
ment of various ai \ounts and terms. The infliction
of the several pc^ Ities being found impracticable,
and the people h ing gone about their business,
some of the prison ^s were shipped away and the
others discharged. ^he gang however was broken
up, and crime for the moment checked. Many of the
Regulators took their departure for the mines, some
of whom there met the fate which they so richly
deserved. The miners had a shorter path from mur-

WAR ON FORKIfJNKRS.

101

dor to the gallows than tlio San KranciHco merchants
had yet found.

This outrage of the Regulators was not an ordinary
riot perpetrated in a moment of excitement, hut a
coolly planned conspiracy against a peaceahlo and
peace-loving community. Under the existing laws
of the United States, foreigners had tlie same rights
in California as American citizens, and wantonly to
injure them was in tlie highest degree criminal. Not
that any special sympathy is due the class against
whom their wrath was kindled. The Chileans and
Peruvians who infested the towns and riHed the
Foothills of their tren^'ures were low enough in the
scale of humanity; by instinct and association they
were lazy, ignorant, and deceitful, and they seldom
scrupled at any crime they might with certainty cover.
With the lewd women brought hither by them, ami
who were little better than chattels, they lived on
infamous earnings: their tents were dens of iniquity;
and if the Hounds had extirpated them, and had tlien
themselves been hanged for it, society would have been
the gainer.

But these foreigners were human beings, and as
such entitled to humane treatment at tlie hands of
professedly humane men. The lower their estate,
the less tamely fair-minded and honorable citizens
would stand by and see them wantonly maltreated.
That they were the scum of other societies and a
curse to ours; that their touch was jiollution and
their presence moral disease, and that their absence
would be a blessing, were perhaps among the reasons
why the Society of Regulators enjoyed so lengthy an
existence. But the persecution of a class was a very
different matter from the punishment of criminals;
the former was based on rank injustice, which would
certainly recoil alike on innocent and guilty, and
it must end. Right nobly did the people of San
Francisco thus early vindicate their integrity and
fair fame, rallying to the help of dc vvn-trodden justice.

ilii

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102

THE SOCIETY OF REGULATORS.

In this, the foreshadowing of that determined sense
of truth and equity, that pointed swiftness of action
so characteristic of California committees of vigilance,
the primary power of society seated itself on the bench
beside limp and inept law, and grasping in one hand
the criminal and in the other the constable, it swore
perpetual divorce from public villainy.

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CHAPTER VII.

THE ADVENT OF LAW.

Thou say'st an undisputed thing
In suuh a solemn way.

OUixr Wendell Holmes.

Although the American flag was hoisted by Cap-
tain Montgomery in the plaza of Ycrba Buena the
9th of July, 1846, two days after it had been raised at
Monterey by Commodore Sloat, it was not until after
the cession of California by Mexico to the United
States, about the time of the gold discovery, that
much was said or thought about government. The
thriving little hamlet that bordered the Cove, in
January, 1847, dropped its modest name of Yerba
Buena for the original and more pretentious one of
San Francisco, made famous by the ISIission, Presidio,
and Bay. This town and the mission settlements
southward boasted their alcalde or justice of tho
peace, and some of them an ayuntamiento or town
council, while the country at large was held by a
military governor, \'hose rule, however, amounted to
little, even along tlie seaboard, and was felt scarcely
at all by the scattered and erratic gold-hunters.

Says the first number of the California Star, pub-
lished at Yerba Biiena January 9, 1847:

"We hear the inquiry almost ovcry liour during tho day, 'What laws aro
wo to bo governed by?' Wo have invariably told those who put tin; qtiestion
to us, 'If anybody asks you, tell thoni you don't know,' becauae we wens un-
willing to express an opinion in relation to tlio laws in foi'cc in this territory,
knowing as wo did that probably during tho day the same persons would 1k5
told at the alcalde's ottice or elsewhere that ' no particular law is in force in

( io;i )

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lOi

THE ADVENT OF LAW.

Ycrba Buena, though there may be in other places in the territory, and that
all suits are now docided according to the alcalde's notions of justice, without
regard to law or the established rules governing courts of equity.' The
written laws of the country can easily be obtained and published, and for the
convenience of the peoiile it ought to be done at once. The people are now
in the situation of the subjects of the tyrant who had his laws written, l>ut
placed them so high that they could not 1)C read by tlie people, consequently
many ignorantly violated them, and lost their lives and property. Commodore
Sti )cktou having been clotlied with power to organize a territorial government
in California, his 2>roclamation settles the law in this country fur the present,
and ought to be regarded as the paramount law by all our courts."

This rambling statement signifies little beyond the
rambling conceptions which even an editor then enter-
tained of the laws under which he lived. When he
speaks of the existence of written laws, he must refer
first to the laws of Spain and Mexico, and secondly to
the laws of England and the United States, for he
must surel>' have known that neither the alcalde of
Yerba Buena, nor the whilom government at Mon-
terey, nor Commodore Stockton, had any local laws
fit for the regulation of present affairs in California.
In a word, like the world in the beginning, law was
without form and void.

Until the war should terminate, it was to be ex-
pected that the commandant of the military district
would act as governor; and though his authority was
vague and anomalous, it was cheerfully recognized by
all except those whom it was intended to restrict or
punish.

But military rule was utterly of no avail in pre-
venting or punishing crime throughout the country.
It could not even maintain its own integrity, or over-
taJve deserters from its ranks. It could offer rewards
for human heads: but lawlessness was not thus to
be restrained. As well might the military governor
of California expect by such means to win souls from
purgatory as that his feeble proclamations would stay
the wild orgy of the Inferno. The military and naval
commandants recognized in the people a right, nay,
enjoined it as a duty, to choose magistrates and pro-

MILITARY RULE.

105

vide themselv es a government ; but this was frequently
coupled with a recommendation for delay until it could
be ascertained whether congress had concluded or was
about to conclude the long-looked for organization.

It will be remembered that when gold was first
discovered Colonel Mason ruled at Monterey. In
anticipation of the failure of congress to provide a
government, a call was made for the people to come
toward and discuss matters relative to their anomalous
situation. By a treaty of peace the country had been
ceded to the United States, and the president had
I'ccomnjended to congress the extension of the laws
of the United States over the newly acquired domain,
but that recommendation had not yet been acted on,
and at the time of the gold discovery the people of
California were without the court machinery neces-
i-^ary for the protection of their lives and ]">roperty.
Crime was on the increase; hordes were hurrvinij
hither confusedly, which a well organized government
with a perfect police system would fintl difficulty
enouo'h in restraining;. What then would the ruffians
not do if left to themselves, and what was to become
of citizens and the country generally? The people of
California could not account for this ill-timed neu'lect
on the part of congress to provide them a government,
until they found the black man at the bottom of it.

Meetings were held at San Josu the 1 1th of De-
cember, 1848, at San Francisco ten days later, and at
Sacramento the Gth of January, 18-49, to take into
consideration the propriety of organizing a provisional
government for the so-called ter-ritory of California,
A day was fixed for the election of delegates to a
convention for the adoption of a territorial or state
constitution, which was to be submitted for ratifica-
tion to the people and sent to congress for approval.
Disagreements arising, however, proceedings were dis-
continued.

By the California, the first steamship to enter San

f\ I.

Wi -

10»)

THE ADVENT OF LAW.

Francisco Bay, arrived General Persifer F. Smith
the 28tii of February, 1849, who immediately assumed
command. He was succeeded the 1 3th of April fol-
lowing by General Riley. It was now time, the
people thought, that civil law should be established
in this territory. The time of war, during which
alone the president possessed the constitutional right
to govern a territory by the simple mandate of a
military officer, was over, and a forcible, practical
government was nowhere on earth more needed.
While congress was disputing over the vexed ques-
tion of slavery in the new territory, the people grew
first impatient, then indignant.

So eager for office and its spoils were the polls
manipulators that in January, 1849, there were in
San Francisco no less than three town councils at one
time. In the absence of state legislation or federal
regard, it was sometimes difficult for the municipali-
ties to tell who were the rulers if any such existed.
The old council of 1848 held over on the ground that
its term had not expired. Of those opposed to it,
one clique affirmed that its time expired the 27th of
December, 1848, and another the loth of January,
1849, and they elected men who took their seats
accordingly. A month later the citizens met and
petitioned both of the newly elected councils to resign,
which they did. A district legislative assembly and
three justices of the peace were then elected. On
the 4tli of June General Riley issued a proclamation
declaring the election of the district legislature illegal,
and reinstating the ayuntamiento of 1848.

General Riley did what he could to soothe and
smooth. He said that congress did not mean to neg-
lect California, nor did the president then regard the
territory as subject to military rule. The old Mex-
ican law then recognized in California, he explained,
in the absence of a properly appointed governor by
the supreme government, vested authority in the
military commander of the department, a secretary,

GOVERNOR, LEGISLATORS, AND JUDGES.

107

a territorial legislature, a superior court consisting of
four judges, a prefect, sub-prefect, and judge of first
instance for each district, and alcaldes and ayun-
tamientos for the towns. M?.ny of these offices were
now vacant, and he recommended that they should
be filled by an election to be held the 1st day of
August, 1849. He recommended, furthermore, the
choosing of thirty-seven delegates to a constitutional
convention from the ten districU into which the
territory was divided for election purposes. Amidst a
general apathy on the part of the voters the election
was held as appointed, and the convention met at
Monterey the 1st of September following.

In the absence of a state legislative body the alcalde
and ayuntamiento of San Francisco claimed supremo
authority in that district, and it was expected that
all their legitimate acts would be sanctioned by the
acting governor and confirmed by future legislation.
The treasury being empty, the new municipal officei's
applied themselves to fill it.

The first money received was appropriated for the
purchase of a dismantled brig, called the Euphcmia,
then lying in the Cove about where now is Front
street. The object of this purchase was to convert
the vessel into a prison, so that the town might have
a place in which to confine its criminals. This was
early in August; and the vessel was turned into a
jail, which was then the only prison the town could
boast. California desired admission at once into the
federal union.

The 13th of November, a state constitution was
adopted, and a governor, judges of the supreme court,
and other state officers elected, and state and federal
legislators chosen. Party politics in this state was
first manifest at this election. The business of the
alcalde of San Francisco increasing, a tribunal called
the Court of First Instance was established early
in December, with William B. Almond as judge.
This court was held in an old school-house on the

108

THE ADVENT OF LAW.

plaza, and decided cases involving not less than one
hundred dollars after a fashion of i'; s own.

The first California legislature, surnamed the Legis-
i;»ture of a Thousand Drinks, met at San Jose one
niontii ?fter election and continued in session four
months. General Riley immediately placed in the
hands of the newly eleched governor the territorial
archives, and surrendered to him the administration
of civil affairs. Though not yet a state, California
was very sure, as she tt.ought, soon to become one,
and adopted measures accordingly. The legislature
proceeded at once to bMsiness as if congress had al-
read} acted on her admission. A judiciary was estab-
lished and all the offices required by the constitution
were created. Foreigners who had not become natu-
ralized citizens were required to pay a license be-
fore working the mines, a measure productive of
more trouble than profit. The penalty of murder
alone was death ; and for sending or accepting a chal-
langQ to fight a duel there should be fine and im-
prisonment. The state was divided into counties; the
incorporation of towns and cities was authorized, and
to San Francisco was given a charter.

The first election of officers for the county oi San
Francisco took place on the 1st of April, 1850, when
a sheriff', judge, recorder, surveyor, treasurer, and
other officials were chosen. The manner of this elec-
tion was characteristic of the times, and shows to
what leniyth candidates for office then went to secure
their election. For the office of sheriff there were
three candidates — J. Townes, whig; J. J. Bryant,
democrat; and John C. Hays, independent. All
were on an equality in having the title of 'colonel'
prefixed to their names. Bryant kept a liotel and
had money; Hays was a dashing Texas ranger and
had friends; Townes had nothing and was early ort
of the contest. Immediately he was nominated
Br3^ant decorated liis tavern with flags, placed a band
of music ujx)!! the balcony, served free lunches in the

JACK HAYES, SHERIFF.

100

saloon, and distributed drinks ad infinitum. This was
continued daily with prospects of the most flatterini^
success uj) to the day of election. There were en-
thusiastic meetings with eloquent speakers and fine
parades, torch-light processions, illuminations, horses,
carriages, transparencies, banners, and all the para-
phernalia of the hustidgs. The people were c s full of
enthusiasm as the candidates; it being to them a
matter of vital importance under wliich of these two
gentlemen the city should be bled.

As the time drow nigh, the Hays party became
despondent. The combined power of those miglity
elements, money and rum, were beyond the puny
efforts of man to combat. At the polls Bryant and
his partisans were more than ever elated. Tlie day
was theirs beyond question. All was lost with Colonel
Jack. But hold! What is this? What new deviltry
has the Texan concocted? For suddenly amidst the
excited throng that gathered in and around the plaza
appeared a mounted horseman, in the character of a
Texan ranger. The clean-limbed fiery steed was
brilliant black and richly caparisoned; the rider sat
erect, with uncovered head, and performed a succession
of difficult feats with consummate grace and skill.
The rabble crowded round in senseless admiration.
Drums beat, trumpets sounded, and loud acclamations
arose from the delighted multitude. The horse be-
coming excited, at length cleared himself from the
crowd, and dashed down the street at full speed.
This was enough. No better proof of the fitness of
the candidate for high position and important trust
was possible. What wonder that officers so elected,
and by such electors, should look lightly on puritan
principles and scrupulous justice as compared with
well-filled pockets, champagne suppers, and happy
harlotinffs! At the election ordered bv Governor
Riley the 1st of August, Horace Hawes had been
chosen prefect. It was an office of his own creating,
and the duties of the incumbent were subsequently

THE ADVENT OF LAW.

of his own defining. The duties of a prefect he
declared were "to take care of pubHc order and
tranquilHty; to pubHsh and circulate, without delay,
observe, enforce, and cause to be observed and en-
forced, the laws, throughout their respective districts;
and for the execution of these duties they are clothed
with certain powers, which are clearly specified and
defined. They are particularly enjoined to attend to
the subject of public instruction, and see that common
schools be not wanting in any of the towns of their
respective districts. They are also required to pro-
pose measures for the encouragement of agriculture,
and all branches of industry, instruction, and public
l)eneficcncc, and for the execution of new works of
public utility and the repair of old ones. They con-
stitute the ordinary channel of communication between
the governor and the authorities of the district, and
arc to communicate all representations coming from
the latter, accompanied with the necessary informa-
tion."

There is but one remove, it is said, between a phi-
losopher and a fool; and tall, gaunt Horace Hawes
could play the one or the other, as occasion required.
He was the most foolish philosopher and the most
philosophic fool San Francisco has ever supported.
His intellect was clear, his logic practical, his argu-
ments conclusive, as the following incident testifies.

When Benjamin Burgoyne was town treasurer,
Hawes presented for payment a bill which he had
held for some time waiting the appearance of funds
in the usually empty municipal money-box, and
said: "Burgoyne, I want you to pay that bill." The
money was counted out and the treasurer remarked:
" Mr Hawes, will you please sign this voucher?"
Hawes complied, and started off; but turning back,
as if struck by a sudden thought, he exclaimed:
" Burgoyne, let me see that paper." The treasurer
] landed him the bill and the voucher which he had
signed, when Hawes thrust them into his pocket with

CHEAP OFFICIALS.

Ill

the money which ho had received. Said Burgoyne,
" That bill is mine." Straightening himself to his full
height, and twisting his features into a terrible scowl,
Hawes exclaimed: "I am prefect, sir, and ex officio
custodian of all papers!"

I shall have occasion to mention the name of Mr
Hawes again in this work ; but I will say here, that
notwithstanding his peculiarities, he was one of the
best and purest legislators the country ever had.

California's admission into the Union, the 9th of
September, 1850, was the occasion of great rejoicing
in San Francisco and throughout the state. Indeed
HO elated were the members of the two boards of
aldermen that they voted themselves each a beautiful
gold medal as a present from the city of San Fran-
cisco.

Thus nominally the law spread its aegis over the
communities of California. But there was no great
benefit in it. The chief towns responded freely to
gubernatorial calls, but little attention was i)rtid by
the lesser camps to the adoption of a constitution, the
organization of law-courts, or the meetinu' of logisla-
tive assemblies. Little by little the garment of con-
ventionality was thrown over these new communities,
but it was ill-fitting, ill-adapted to those social abnor-
mities which it was never made for, and hence was
for the most part thrown aside as useless. Although
the people were patriotic enough, none but the more
worthless would deny their gold-gathering proclivities
for the gratification of political honor. It was easy
to find men to fill the liisflicr offices of srovernmeut,
such as governor, judge, or receiver of public funds;
there were plenty of men too lazy to work, and with-
out sufficient wit to live upon, who for salary or per-
quisites would accept office, but intelligent honest
men to fill the place of inferior functionaries at paltry
salaries w^ere not forthcoming. The pay of a member
of congress was then but eight dollars a day, and a

112

THE ADVENT OF LAW.

California ffold-disjijer would abandon in disdain a
claim that did not yield him twice as much.

Loni;' before good government and law-courts could
be established there the Foothills were Hooded by
a gold-thii'sty humanity. In the absence of good
laws well administered the people of the mining dis-
tricts were obliged to make laws for themselves.
This tlicy did in the simplest manner and with a view
to the immediate attainment of justice. Thefts and
murders were quickly followed by whipping or hang-
ing. These crude self-constituted tribunals were soon
the terror of evil-doers, who thereupon became aware
that it was better to work and be honest than to steal
and 1)0 hanged.

Tlio community being thus purged of its criminals
in the absence of law, law" next biicomcs criminal
and scourges the people through the medium of its
ministers. Every member of society was amenable
to the law except officers of the law and their friends.
Plutarch tells us that " when Anacharsis heard what
Solon was doing, he laughed at the folly of thinking
that he could restrain the unjust proceedings and
avarice of its citizens by written laws, which he said
resembled in every way spiders' webs, and would, like
them, catch and hold only the poor and weak, while
the rich and powerful would easily break through
them." After the trial and conviction of Socrates his
judges turned to him, according to the custom at
Athens, and told him he might bid for his life; so in
these early San Francisco courts at almost any stage
of proceedings the defendant might buy an acquittal
with money. And here as in Rome, false accusations
were sometimes made against good men, such as
Pliny complained of in Regulus, who of all two-footed
creatures was called the wickedest.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIME IN CALIFORNIA.

Ay, do despise me. I 'm the prouder for it ;
I like to be despised .

Bkhcrxtaff.

Obviously the peculiarities of crime in California
arose from the peculiarities of conditions. Bees
make their cells cylindrical, but mechanical pressure
gives them a liexagonal form. So it is with crime and
criminals; the villain lays his i)lans smooth and roun«l,
but circumstances press them into other shapes.

Physicists tell us not only that molecules exist, but
that every molecule has its individuality; and this
whether atoms are born of and developed from ])re-
existing forms, whether matter is or is not self-existent
and eternal, or whether matter may or may not be
reduced to force alone. As different phases of matter
in the body act chemically when brought together so
as to produce different kinds of substance, so phases
of mind, or constituent qualities, acting under the
chemistry of human nature, yield their several moods
.and affections. There are two liquids which united
become solid; there are two cold substances wliich
united produce heat; there are two evils which make
a good. There is nothing that crushes manhood
and keeps mind debased like ancient forms and super-
stitions. It is among the conservative elements of
state, church, and society that we find fashion domi-
nating sound sense and good principles, that we find
form more esteemed than godliness or sweet charity.
And it is not necessary, in older to be sustained in

Pop. Tmb.. Vol. I. 8

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114

CIIAnACTKRISTICS OF CRLMi: IN CALIFORXIA.

tliiw aiitiqiio iiiunimery, to make of tluj creator a r^v^<♦
e,r movliiiKi, who may l»y human exiiostulatioiis suHi-
c'iuiitly loud or lo^jical be iiuhicod to iiitorfen* in tlio
workinijfs of tlie laws which ho has made: ho in order
to he rid of the tyramiy it is not necessary to deny
the possibiUty of unexpected fortunate occnirences.
There was other escape fi"om this mental incubus in
the year of «jfi-ace 1849, which was to encamp amonj^
the Sierra Foothills.

In the melodrama now beini^ played the scones
wore dramatic beyond descri[>tion. The actoi's and
their parts were as varied as human nature and
anomalous circumstance could produce. Comedy was
tragic, and tragedy comic; on the same lK)ard in
simultaneous declamation were hero, clown, and
heavy villain, who with the plodding people as a proy
presented a ])erformance fascinating in the extreme.

Not that California was particularly bad; not that
there was less good than evil abroad; not that San
Francisco was worse than any other seai)ort city, or
worse then than now. The times were fi'esher then,
and the lately unfettered nature of the ))eople was
more pnmounced; but for looseness of morals, |)olitical
and social, for unjirincipled cunning on all sides, un-
blushing rascality in high ]>laces, a lavish expenditure
of money by the wealthy in order to demoralize law
and defeat the ends of justice, connnend me to tho
present time. Tho tyrannies of feudalism were tame
as compared with the inftxmies of the political and in-
dustrial magnates of to-day; for, as Thucydidcs says,
"it is more disgraeefa) for men in high office to
improve their private forxunc by specious fraud than
by open violence. Mjgl\t makes right in tho one case ;
while in the other, man throws over his proceedings
the cloak of despicable cunning."

In tho earlier social fermentations, the wickedness
innate in every community was more visibly apparent
upon the surface. The men composing the commu-
nity were for the most part, as I have before observed.

HIDDEN AND OPEN VICE.

115

from tlu' better walks of life, mon of intollinfeiiro aiul
fair traininLj. Their instincts and tlieir aspirations
were as a rule nol»le. Tiie |ie<'uliaritv of ti>eir j)osi-
tion lay ehieily in the faet that they were without law
or j;overninent. They were n«>t wild beasts o!" sav-
n^^es; therefore they neeiled rule. In the absence of
indiiujenous institutions, in the heteroi^eneous charaetei*
of tills social coni|>oun(l, in the <liversity of thoui^ht and
customs, and in the varieties of opinion here min<;led,
if ever stronji^ rule was needed it was over this con-
glomeration of civilized men living almost in a state of

savagism.

In the absence of a ruler every man was his own
despot; each did what wa.s good in his own eyes.
There were not even those social restraints so essen-
tial to good behavior, and which are indeed stronger
than the strongest law. Hence it was that misbe-
havior wa« unblushingly open. It makes a vast dilfer-
ence to refino<l civilization, even to aisthetic; religion,
whether breaches of conventionalisms be hidden or
o])en, whether the senator has seven mistresses in
Washington, or the .saint an many wives in Salt Lake
City.

The superabundant wickedness of to-day we hide
away, and aft'ect not to see it. We pass laws against
gambling, against prostitution, against all the more
rc])ulsive forms of vice, and then with pious prudery
make the bare mention of such obnoxious evils profane
to ears polite. Meanwhile, nursing our secret sins,
lying in wait for opportunity of advantage ov^er our
neighbor, hardening our heart to the misfortunes of
others, do we not, under cover of decency and respecta-
bility, indulge in all the lusts and passions which we
so sanctimoniously condenm in open offenders? In
society everywhere we see certain of the moderately
wicked execrated, while others infinitely more wicked
are lightly blamed. The forms that hide the hideous-
ness of vice cover brutality, and put on the appearance
of virtue. There is a drapery beneath which shame

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116

CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIME IN CALIFORNIA.

will not creep. Neither religion, morality, nor law is
tlio most powerful lever of oar present social mechan-
ics; make sin unfashionable if you would eradicate it.
Break all the moral laws you please, but beware how
you tread upon the toes of society. Do you wish to
steal? Do it legally and successfully, as a railway or
land monopolist, and you will be adulated in your ill-
gotten wealth. There are more refined ways of
killing than with knife or pistol ; affection, character,
ambition may be slain, leaving the skeleton of de-
parted hopes to stalk the earth as in the pale moonlit
streets of a ghostly city; and though such deeds be
dastardly, society does not heed them so long as they
are not ungenteel, or bunglingly done. Some may
bo governed more or less by an abstract sense of right,
based on moral or religious ideals, but these form a
small part of any community. Many more think
their actions are regulated by some such sentiment
when it is really not the fact. .

Every age and nation has its individuality, has
some leading form of virtue or rudimentary excellence,
])osscssing which, in the eyes of society, the individual
is virtuous and excellent, and lacking which he is
anathematized. The standard of excellence may be
at one time courage; at another, religion, birth, caste,
learning, patriotism, and the like: each in its turn
takes its place as the moral ideal. And this ideal
is constantly undergoing change. For example, the
virtues essential in Spain, four centuries ago, are not
the essential virtues of Christendom to-day. Then
obedience was the superior charm of woman; now it
is chastity. Then blind loyalty best became the good
citizen; now there are men of good conduct and
character who question the immutability of any one
set of civil or ecclesiastical forms.

Similar forms in character may be generated from
different causes. Thus one nation is conscientious
and honest from habits inculcated by a life of labor

RELATIVE MORALITIES.

117

and deprivation ; another from religious or superstitious
motives. A long life of painful self-sacrifice or devo-
tion to a cause may spring from a desire to please God,
or from a desire to please one's self But whatsoever
its gene'sis, it is this moral ideal that gives concretion
to society and force to form.

The law takes little cognizance of the relative good-
ness and badness of human nature. In its eyes a man
is wholly good or wholly bad. It draws a line, and
all who happen to be on one side are doomed to jails
and penitentiaries, while those on the other side may
go free. The greater part of the human family hover
near this line. The good are not very good nor the
bad very bad. The law shows little discernment in
its separations. There are many on either side who
rightly belong on the other. Often a little more
villainy would save one from the gallows, and a little
more benevolence would send many an uncondemned
criminal thither.

Back from the line some distance we find the ex-
tremes. Take one each of these, place them side by
side, the greatest saint and the greatest sinner; then
compare and analyze. Many qualities we find com-
mon in both, such as patience, application, knowledge,
skill, courage, self-denial, affection, and a hundred
more. The difference in their natures may be very
slight, so slight, indeed, that a pennyweight more or
less of this prejudice or passion, oi of that bent of
intellect or strength of physi ^ue, was all that stood
originally between the paths that later led to a prison
and to a pulpit. As in nature, so in man, the product
depends entirely on the mixture of elemental prin-
ciples and the incidents generated therefrom by envi-
ronment.

A life of crime j^er se is seldom chosen by the worst
man. Cr' • is generally the result of ignorance or
passion, ine consequence is either not known or not
considered. Aggregations of men may do that with
impunity fw which individuals so offending would

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118

CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIME IN CALIFORNIA.

bo severely punished. What is war but wholesale
murder? How differs corporation from individual
swindling? In early California personal surroundings
were so different from any hitherto experienced that
one found one's self in the midst of a thousand tempta-
tions. And yet California made very few men bad;
most bad men were such before coming hither. Every
one was here with an avowed object, the accumulation
of wealth; hence the one who scraped together the
most gold was the best man. This passion being of
the baser sort, in the absence of those restraining in-
fluences usually attending individuals so far advanced
in culture as these, their baser part appeared upon
the surface, mingled with their better part in a
degree unparalleled in tlie gr<3wth of communities.
They would have money; morality was a difterent
and comparatively insignificant matter. The power
of wealth was all the rcspectabilitj' necessary. They
would indulge their passions as they pleased, some in
one way and some in another; and as long as a man
paid his debts he was not open to serious censure.
Thus in the association of these heroes of the golden
calf, with the attendant elements of pugilistic chivalry
and brute force, was seen what we might call a modem
age of antique intermixtures, a combination of the
golden age, the heroic age, and the stone age, with
latter-day liberalized modifications.

Crime here had an individuality not less pro-
nounced than the peculiarities of the people. In
cliaracter and quality it partook of the nature of the
times. Its origin was as often vanity and liot blood
as it was cool, calculating cupidity. Tliere was a chiv-
alrous l^caring and dash about it which to many was
enticing. The danger of it was charming; the field
for atrocious ambition was vide ; murderers delighted
in the magnitude of their achievements, notclihig the
number of their victims on tlie hilt of knife or pistol.
Theft was base, unworthy a true knave-errant. When

THEFT AND MURDER.

119

men did steal, it was in a sort of magnificent style,
such as highway robbery, unearthing bags of buried
gold-dust, or for revenge. There was glory even in
failure; the captured criminal was for the time a Iiero,
the observed of all. !Men eyed him ; women talked
of him; editors wrote of him. Business was dropped,
and whiskey drunk, and court-rooms were filled, and
briefs written, all for him. Jails were opened for him
and free accommodations furnished. He was the
guest of the town. For him sheriffs bustled, juries
sat, lawyers ranted, judges looked grave; and even
if he was hanged there was something flattering in
the punishment.

There was a subdued audacity in the fighting men
'^f California. The blustering Ensflishman had not
his counterpart here, nor the wild Irishman, nor the
half-crazed Frenchman, nor the border ruffian of Kan-
sas or Mis,'!)issippi. There was much of tlie gentleman
about them, in many much that was chivalrous. The
true Californian desperado was a mild-mannered man,
gentle in demeanor, not given to much drink, and
though about to cut you in pieces, he greeted you with
a smile of sardonic sweetness. As a rule he patronized
the barber, sported a white shirt and neatly fitting
and well polished French boots; and when carrying
the houors of a fresh murder he sometimes indulyfcd
in kifl liioves.

S Aiii'l'ng, the Lilliputians punished more severely
Hr u ' !!(;ft, because it was easier, they said, to protect
tiif'ir pcupi^rty from thieves than from cunning and
unprliic >1' 1 persons who peri>etrated their villainies
within the pale of law. In like manner the Calilor-
nians punished theft more than murder, because men
carried their lives about with them, and miglit defend
them, but property left to itself was defenceless.
The easy, open, self-reliant disposition of the peoj)le;
th jir fondness for harsh words, though so often acconi-
yiii' !od by gentle deeds, their hot blood and hatred
ioi •■: !'atsoever in appearance was craven, the exposed

1 1

120

CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIME IN CALIFORNIA.

condition of men and money, the free use oi" strong
dr'.nk, and the necessity felt of always going armed,
ware among the chief causes of bloody affrays; and
when woman came, as ever in the history of the race,
she was a new and fruitful source of deadly encounter.

Thus it was that crimes against the person were
more general than crimes against property; and one
cause of it may be traced to the grand opportunity
for the evolution of avarice which was oftered by
gambling. In professional parlance, the dead-broke
man could almost always, by borrowing, or working a
little, raise a staki\ ad thus find gratification for
that covetous greet " ■ h, without this opportunity
and excitement, must I to schemes of darkness.

Moreover, where ever^ man was obliged to defend
himself, and in a measure to right his own wrongs,
greater license was allowed in the employment of
deadly weapons. When rifles, revolvers, and bowie-
knives were the fashion, when no one was supposed
to be decently dressed without them, it were a little
singular if one should never be allowed to use them.
Hence it was that crimes of violence, the result of
excited passion arising from strong drink, gambling,
fancied wrong and insult, were more common and less
severely punished than crimes displaying iimat mean-
ness. There was no necessity for stealing; food was
plentiful and easily obtained, very little clothing was
necessary, life in the open air was delightful, and work
was honorable; on the face of earth there walked, in
his opinion, no man more noble than the honest miner,
even though his woollen shirt \yas never washed ; and
to sf nke a hearty, maidy blow for whiskey or opinion's
sake, even though somebody died in consequence, was
quite different from the sneaking meanness of the
Mexican cattle thief On the other hand, those very
causes which diminished theft increased personal
violence. Freeness of life and manner, stimulating
drinks, stimulating air, absence of social restrictions,
all tended to the turning loose of passion, and to that

INFLUENCE OF DEADLY WEAPONS.

121

gratification of appetite which breeds licentiousness
and blows. Hence it was that in the earlier stajjea

1 • • • • •

of arbitrary justice the thief was hanged while the
murderer was left to run at large.

In 1875 the carrying of deadly weapons without
special permission was forbidden in San Francisco;
since which time hundreds of applications for such
permission have been made and granted. It has
been questioned whether under this law the safety
of the citizen or of the robber is the better secured.
Men of nocturnal occupations, and those living in
lonely suburbs, dc( I'^od it necessary to go * heeled,'
as hoodlums say; but the permits issued became so
numerous as to include many whose intentions were
assault rather than defence. Coercive laws, such
as restrict the innocent action of responsible men;
sumptuary laws, laws against intemperance and im-
morality, never will regenerate society. Ho who
desires to do murder will not hesitate to break the
lesser law against carrying weapons.

As in savagism ornament precedes dress, so in
border communities deadly weapons precede the im-
plements of legal justice. Everybody, dimng the
Inferno, the disreputable and the respectable, deemed
it a necessity to carry weapons. This shows how
blinding is fashion. 13ccause hung to every man's
belt were glittering implements for the losing of
human life, it was taken for granted that no life was
safe without such implements. Surely the applica-
tion of a little thought and common sense to the
subject would have shown them that exoe})t in ex-
traordinary cases, even in a community of rough fire-
eaters, he who went unarmed was less liable to be
attacked, less in danger of losing his life, than ho
who always went armed to the teeth for purposes of
defence. Weapons invite violence. They are as bad
playthings for men as for children. In California
they were as dragons' teeth sowed broadcast along

122 CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIME IN C^VLIFORNIA.

the Foothills, which sprang up each to the other's de-
struction. Not less than ten millions of dollars of the
precious metal taken from the mines of the Pacilic
States has gone to pay for guns, pistols, and knives
with which the people might butcher each other, and
without which all would have been better off.

Quarrels between the rascals themselves were
promptly settled by bowie-knife or revolver. As a
rule they died with their boots on, as they expressed
it — that is to say, violent deaths ; indeed they expected
nothing less. Ancient belligerents, each having sworn
to kill his enemy on sight, would stroll alx)ut the
street with eyes and ears on the alert, with hand on
pistol-hilt, and on coming together both would draw
and fire as rapidly as possible, neither of them speak-
ing a word. Duels were in order; of the one hundred
fought in California about one third were fatal to one
of the combatants. Althounfli our law makes duelling:
a felony, no one has ever been properly punished for
this offence; yet public opinion is against it, and a
duel now is of rare occurrence. The quiet citizen the
ruffian seldom molested, except in cases of robbery.
At no time in the history of the country need any
well-behaved man, minding his own business and
avoiding drinking-saloons, have greatly feared for his
life.

I have said that there were different deixrees and
methods of punishment. A warning to leave the
camp, or town, or city, or country, was the mildest
form; whipping was not unusual, but hanging was
most common. In a country where all was turmoil
and confusion, and where a liberated criminal would
be as free as ever to commit now crimes in another
camp or district, capital punishment seemed the only
effectual cure. Suspected and disorderly persons were
driven away.

Hanging was done in various ways — by shoving
the criminal from the door of a loft while a rope
suspended him by the neck to a beam above; by

METHODS OF PUNISHMENT.

12S

running him up to the bough of a tree, a number of
men having hold of the rope and sharing in the
execution ; by mounting him on a box or cask under
a tree, and when all was ready knocking the support
from under; by mounting the condemned on a horse
or mule, tying his neck to the limb of a tree, and
driving the animal out from under him. Sometimes
one of the miners would be appointed executioner, at
other times all would join in the unwelcome work.

A fourth punishment — hanging, exile, and whipping
being the first three — was one no less effectual than
novel. It was the custom of committees of vigilance
when they had in their possession a Imd character
against whom there existed strong suspicion but not
sufficient evidence for conviction, before setting at
liberty such an one to cause his likeness to be tal;en,
that all villain-hunters might thenceforth know liim.
The Chinook of tlie Columbia, in the enjoyment of
his aboriginal phantasy, would sooner die than have
his other or intrinsic self, or soul, transfixed iu liglit
and shade, or imprisoned on the canvas to be carried
hence, stolen, and forever lost to him. So tliese
worse than savages, wlio preyed upon their kind,
would ofttimes have preferred corporal punishment, or
exile, to tlie infliction of the daguerreotype.

There is more virtue in the lash for criminals than
many suspect. Bound to the wliipping-post, tlieir
backs bared to the sun, the performance which follows
is not sentiment alone. Prisons the expert malefactor
does not mucli fear. Even though doomed to dis-
appointment, hope of escape never deserts him. But
the whipping-post is an abomination, attended as it is
with pain as well as disgrace.

Yet however overwhelmed a mining-camp may have
been by cunning Ic naves and unprincipled miscreants,
by desperadoes newly made, and the spawn and outcast
of old societies; liowever crude the justice of these
uniledged civilizations, and however passionate and
insane the populace in the execution of a popular

^ I

124

CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIME IX CALIFORNIA.

verdict, mixed with the general mass there was always
enough of leaven in tho shape of inherent n()l)leness
of character, love of right, and practical good sense
in the maintenance of order and respectability, to save
the place from final destruction. This element of re-
spectability and a care for appearances was greatly
strengthened by the presence of woman, wlien slie
came, as well as of churches, schools, lyceums, and
piano-fortes; and while the quick-thinking and quick-
acting people were sometimes overcome of impatience
from laggard justice, officers of the law became more
and more respected, and were less interfered with iu
the discharge of their duties.

Early in 1850 some few began to think of remaining
permanently in the country, and accordingly sent for
their families. But even later the great mass of the
people intended only to secure a little fortune and
then hasten from these wild, and to many detestable,
shores. Some thought of a longer stay in connection
with political preferment or professional adv^ancement,
but even these looked forward in the hope of a return
eastward after a five or ten years' exile. Hence it
was that men, even of cultivated abilities and ma-
ture character, who under other circumstances would
have taken a lively interest in assisting to lay the
foundation of the political and social institutions of
the new commonwealth, were careless of the welfare
of the country, and took little interest in society.
Clusterincr round their heart-strinijs were the old
home affections, and many were the high aspirations
finally smothered in the hopes of return. They were
good men, and respected the dignity of government
and social order, but they did not come hither for
personal distinction, or for any other purpose but
fortune.

Where money was plenty and manners were free, for
the popularity of the thing, those even who intended
soon to leave the country forever might countenance
propositions tending toward public good, and might aid

HISTORIC BELLS.

125

in the establishing of schools and churches, hut the
heart was not in it.

Overlooking since 1850 the upper side of Ports-
mouth Square, early San Francisco's historic centre,
is the Monumental Engine House. Many and varied
have been the doings witnessed from its windows, for
in this plaza there used to congregate men of every
color, of every phase of intellect, of every quality of
aspiration. Thence have been seen crimes of every
sort, and some displays of slow and of swift retribu-
tive justice. Assassinations the Monumental windows
have seen, and riotings, robberies, and hangings; the
tented foreigners in their low licentiousness, and the
gaudy saloon, and blazing, music-sounding betting-
shops; the grandest of early theatres, tlie Jenny Lind ;
the custom-house; the post-office, with its long line
of anxious letter -seekers on the arrival of every
steamer; these, beside mobs, elections, political dis-
plays, citizens' meetings, peddlers' cries, street preach-
ing, and a thousand other enlivening scenes.

There were not many bells in California then, but
the Monumentals had a bell on their engino-lKJUse
when churches were obliged to do without. Fire
was king, and could command what it would. There
were other flames beside the flame of fire tliat often
raged within hearing of this bell— flames of passion,
and the blazing of those lusts which so often bum to
cinders both body and soul. All the time those fires
of hell were flaming in the bodies of men, who were
constrained to fight them liourly or die. Men's passions
were always ablaze; but when property was on fire
the Monumentals struck their bell, and the alarmed
citizens roused themselves from their beds to the
rescue. It may not be out of place to monti du here
that the bell of the Monumentals was the official
organ of the terrible tribunal of 185(5, when first
convened, and rang to their death those most able
and gentlemanly scoundrels of the ballot-box stuffing
epoch: yet it was not the first to sound the note of

CITARACTEPJSTICS OP CRIME IX CALIFORNIA.

warning to vicc-riddcn San Francisco. That lienor
bclinigH to tlio California Company's bell, which was
sounded with a billet of wood by Mr Oakcs, standing
on the ground — which was hainnicred by that gentle-
man when he wished to rouse the pco])lo to the trial
of Jenkins, in the sunmier of 1851. Later, the first
tribunal employed the bells of both these conijianies.
Likewise was seen from the same windows of the
Monumentals the chain-gang at work on the plaza
and public streets — a novel spectacle in America —
twenty or thirty hardened offenders, pallid through
long confinement, clanking their chains to the move-
ment of pick and barrow, and warning the novice in
crime of the fruits of evil doiniy. In older societies
such displays are rightly regarded as barbarous and
debasing; but here some more public and severe
punishment seemed necessary than the latest refined
and philanthropic methods. It was not the money
saved to the city, if indeed there was any such sav-
ing, but the moral effect that alone justified the

measure

The police court, or recorder's court, as it was
called before the passage of the consolidation act,
was the medium by which the moral ulcers of the
city were opened. The prisoners there every morn-
ing arraigned were mostly foreigners, and interpreters
of every civilized language under heaven were found
necessary. And the religion of these scoundrels, and
that of their friends, must be duly regarded, for the
vilest and most ignorant are often the most relijjious.
Herein was still greater diversity. Each witness was
sworn by whatever pecuhar sentiment of fear en-
vironment had placed his imagination under — the
Chinaman, for example, by holding in his fingers
a piece of burning yellow paper, symbolical of the
burning of his soul should he fail to tell the truth.
I regret that faithfulness enforces me to add that,
notwithstanding this solemn invocation of spiritual
fire which threatened to strew the path to paradise

COURTS OF JUSTICE.

127

with the ashes of his soul, John did sometimes most
wickedly lie.

The lirst number of the San Francisco Ilcrdhl,
issued June 1, 1850, calls the attention of its readers
to tlie open and perscverinj^ attempts at incendiarism,
alHrming that there was then an organized gang of
ruffians devoting their time to the disturbance of the
public peace, and to maturing plans of burning and
robbing. Two or three attempts to lire tiie town
were somethncs made in a sinjjle nifjht. The jjancr
was composed chiefly of Sydney convicts, and corre-
spondence was carried on between the principal cities
of the state. Great difficulty was experienced by the
authorities in frustrating their schemes, reckless and
desperate as they were, and practised in all the arts
of villainy. A law was passed by the legislature to
deter the coming of convicts, but up to this time it
had not been enlcrced.

Courts of justice during those days were frequently
assailed by the press, but they had their defenders.
Writing December 13, 1850, the editor of the San
Francisco I'Jvening PicaijuncssiyH: "We have not been
indifferent, as we have shown on frequent occasions,
to the unwarrantable and disgraceful attacks upon our
courts, and upon those who preside over them, by one
of our morning journals. Wc deprecated, at the earliest
moment, the appearance of a seditious and disorgan-
izing spirit, but were told that all the talk in which
it indulged about the overthrow of the only defences
of our rights and liberties was all nonsense, and we
had concluded so to regard it. We have no fears for
the stability of the tribunals Avhich the people h^vc
created, and we have had no suspicions of any a ■ ; it
of the purest integrity in the judges that sit in them.
But we have looked with inconceivable displacency
upon the license that has been assumed, both to con-
trol and traduce them. We are glad to see that our
contemporaries have, some of them, given a strong and
manly utterance to a just, but wc fear useless, rebuke."

i
I

128

CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIME IX CALIFORNIA.

This tended only to stir up all the more ordcr-lovinj^
citizens, who continued to curse tlie courts because
they would not jiunish crime. At last the people of
California were awake, wide awake.

If they were to remain here but a week they did
not wish to be robbed or burned in the mean time.
Then grumblinij became chronic. Men com|)laincd to
each other, and came together in mass meetings, and
swore these things should not be. If crime had its
characteristics, so had those determined to eradicate
it. Knavery of all kinds was looked after — the owners
of steamers, that they should not carry more passen-
gers than the law allowed, no less than those who
would cut throats or burn buildings. Speculators who
caused flour to rise to twice or thrice its value were
openly and manfully denounced. While in all this
tlicre was much talk, there was some action, as we
shall see before the end of these volumes is reached.

In regartl to the spasmodic course of crime, I do
not know that it is more particularly so in Californir
than elsewhere. I think not. But here at all oven
its character has been clearly apparent. For a time
all would go on smoothly and quietly in the line of
villainy; then suddenly there would appear a shooting
mania or a house-breaking mania, or a mania for solf-
nmrder, and for a week or a month the columns of
the daily journals would present a stirring calendar.
Murder incites murder; blood begets blood. Like
every wave of fashion, crime undulates in common
directions. The force of example is no less strong in
suicide than in silks; ninety-nine hundredths of all we
do is done because wo see others do so. Readinj; the
reports of rascality, and the warnmgs against iniquity
in moral reform books and journals, engenders a morbid
immorality. When all books of a demoralizing tend-
ency are burned, our Sunday-school libraries will be
cleared of half their contents.

CHAPTER IX.

LAW AND DISORDER.

Gcsotz iat miichtig, niiiciitiger die Noth.

Goetlif,

With the rise of legislative assemblies, the adoption
of a constitution, and the election of state and county
officers, the administration of affairs in the more settled
parts was taken from the hands of the merchants, me-
chanics, and miners, and placed under the direction
of the several officers of the law and legal tribunals.
Then the wicked took heart. Hitherto there had
been an absence of those legal and political juggleries
which primarily are devoted to defeating the ends of
justice. Now might crime weave round itself the
threads of law, as the larva spins the protecting cocoon.
Most strange and paradoxical was it that the eleva-
tion of law should have subverted legal authority, and
that the cultivation of morals should have so demoral-
ized the community.

I say the establishing of courts tended to encourage
crime rather than to prevent it. By manipulating
primary elections, and managing the polls, unprincipled
demagogues were placed upon the bench, and ruffians
made court officers. The most notorious offenders, by
giving straw bail, by producing two or three members
of their fraternity to swear an alibi, or by unblushing
bribery, were sure of acquittal or escape. In one year,,
for two hundred murders committed, there was but a.
single legal execution. Police officers connived with
professional house-breakers and shared the spoil.

While it was easy to hang a thief, it was difficult

Pop. Tbib., Vol. I. 0

(129)

130

LAW AND DISORDER.

to convict of murder before the juries of the interior.
There were so many excuses which those could allow
who had themselves indulged in a little shooting, that,
oven when in the early part of 1854 juries began to
convict, they generally softened before leaving their
.seats and sent in a recommendation to mercy.

Juries were summoned from the hangers-on about
c()urt-rooms, men fit for nothing else, scarcely able to
live by their wits, and yet too lazy to work. Old
familiar faces were they, blossoming under the genial
influence of strong drink; old pensioners they seemed
to regard tlicmselves, as they did nothing but sit in
the jury box, the same person sometimes serving
several times in one dav. Thus the courts had always
at hand an acceptable, stereotyped jury of retired
Peter Funks from the puilieus of Long Wharf, petty
liucksters, perhaps, or sham bidders at Cheap John
auction rooms.

Murderers were our con^jressmen, and shameless
debauchees our senators. Qui' legislators were repre-
Hontatives of the sediment of society, and not of
worthy citizens. An ex-governor of the state, John
IVU'Dougal, was arrested for election frauds shortly
after his return from the east, in September, 1856.
Cowliiding affairs, in whicli a woman was either an
actor or tlie cause, and politicians parties to it, were
of common occurrence. Affrays between attorneys
in court, in the name and under the nose of justice,
and duels in whicli an editor, judge, or politician was
•r^iirc to figure, were frequent.

"There is scarce an officer intrusted with the exe-
cution of our state government," writes the editor
of the J'Jrcniuf/ Picaijune as early as August, 1850,
"scarce a legislator chosen to frame the laws under
wliich our interests and tlie interests of those who are
U) come after us are to be regulated, scarce a judicial
officer from the bench of the supreme court down to
the clerk of a village justice of the peace, scarce a
functionary belonging to the municipal administration

RECORDS OF CRIME.

131

of our cities and incorporated towns, who has not
entered upon his duties and responsibilities as the
means of making money enough to carry him home.
His devotion to the well-being and advancement of
the community whose confidence he has sought and
won is measured by the dollars and cents to be acquired
by fidelity and industry in his place, rather than l)y
any prospective regard to the influence wliicli liis
official career may have upon the destinies of the
conmiunitv of which he has no intention to become
permanently concerned. "

From the criminal records of 1855 I find that in
California five hundred and thirty-eight persons met
their death by violenct^ Of these three hundred and
seventy were white, one hundred and thirty-three
were Indians, thirty-two Chinese, and three were
negroes. The most inoffensive, it may ho noticed,
suffered the least. The record can scarcely be correct,
however, as regards the aborigines, for liundreds of
them were slain by the dominant race, the murders
beinof never made known. Duriui? this same year
forty-seven persons are said to liave been executed 1)y
mobs, and nine by legal tribunals; ten were killed ])y
sheriffs or police-officers, and six by collectors of
foreign miners' licenses. Twelve perished in fights
about mininy: claims, and eicfht over the cfami no-table.
Prior to 1855 homicide was at least as frequent.
The district attorney of San Francisco asserts that
durinfj the years 1850-n inclusive there were twelve
hundred murders and only one legal criminal con-
viction. Though I do not vouch for the correctness
of this statement, it was, to say the least, a terrible
condition of things.

Helper in his LiCind of Gold makes a startling
statement, which I give for what it is worth, lie
affirms the loss of life by violence in California during
the years 1849 to 1854 inclusive to have been as fol-
lows: murders, 4200; suicides, 1200; insanity, 1700;
wrecked, or the victims of disease on the voyage

132

LAW AND DISORDER.

hither by sea, 2200; perished, or killed by Indians
on the overland route, IGOO; perished in the mines,
and in prospecting for gold, for lack of care, or
scarcity of food, and by Indians, 5300. Total, 1G,400.
Life was cheaper than under Anglo-Saxon law, when
for killing a churl the murderer had to pa}^ ten
pounds, though for sixty pounds one might kill a king
and 2:0 free. Had Herod, for the slaughter of the
Innocents, been brought before a San Francisco jury
at that time he vrould have been acquitted. Judas
Iscariot amongst the California Christians would
have passed unscathed so long as any part of his
thirty silver pieces remained with him. Scores of quid-
nuncs, political Paul Prys, soi dlsant patriots, hung
round every drinking-saloon. As Plato said of the
Athenians, "It is dreadful to think that half the
people we meet have perjured themselves in one of
the numerous law-courts." Thus the moral perspec-
tive of society was anything but pleasing.

Time was when the personage wliom no one knew,
called Man in the ]Moon, was employed to negotiate
bribes. But no such clap-trap was necessary in the
present instance. In every precinct was a politician-
shop, where third and fourth rate wares from Ireland,
and old rotten relics from the eastern states, newly
veneered and varnished, were palmed off on the people
of California as sound and genuine.

The YQ\m\ of order following the demolition of the
Societv of Rejyulators was of short duration. The
disease which had fastened itself on this infant so-
ciety with such virulence was not eradicated, but only
scattered. Further indications of popular determina-
tion were visible during the midsummer of 1850,
and although the climax was not reached until six
years after, the main issues were seldom lost sight
of In the mad race of money-getting, office-holders
as well as others were troubled with the itching
palm. Gold dust was abundant; every one appeared
to be getting rich; business men were not always

AN EXPENSIVE LUXURY.

133

over-scrupulous in the means employed for the ac-
quirement of wealth; San Francisco was a mighty
metropolis in embryo; why should not her othcers
make money with the rest? So they voted them-
selves larije salaries, built and bouo'ht extcnsivL-lv,
let contracts to supporters at double current rates,
stole the public lands, imposed heavy taxes on the
people, and swelled the public debt until the young
city groaned beneath the weight. They were not only
sordid in their craving for Ljain, but indecent in tlieir
sordidness. There were now those present wbo looked
upon San Francisco as Lneir future home, wlio liad
the city's true interests at heart, and these regarded
with no favoral)le eye the doings of political leeches.

Like everything Californian, when government set
in, it was with a vengeance. Following the approval
by the people of the city chai'ter, ^[ay 1, 1 850, it
became necessary for a eity of liiteen tliousand in-
habitants to pay a mayor, a i-ecorder, a comptroller, a
city marshal, and a city attorney, each a salary of
51510,000 ])er aimum. There was a board of aldcnncii,
and a lioard of assistant aldermen, sixteen members
in all, at a salary of sG,000 each ; a treasuier at ii>('),000,
and a tax collector at i?l 8,000. When the othcials
voted this Vi'ai'ly expenditure of !^170,000, and other
like exorbitant sums, out of the })eo])le's })ockets into
their own, under the usual caption, 'The })eoplc of the
city of San Francisco do ordain,' it was tirst thouglit
to be a joke, though a sorry one, and it was su))pose(l
the ordinance would be immediately rescin(K'd. Such
was not the case, liowever, and it soon became a])parent
that tlie citizens would not sul)mit to it. 1'he city
was already heavily in debt, and no provision liad been
made for the [)ayment of obligatit>ns long since (Uie.
Such a course was blighting to lier pj'os])ccts, ruinous
to her credit, and calculated to drixc awav settlers
and ca[)ital.

On tile ;}d of June a call was made to attend a
primary meeting at tlie ^[erchants Exchange, [ire-

184

LAW AND DISOKDRR.

paratory to a mass meeting to be lield for ilio i)urpose
of adopting prompt and efficient measm*es for retreneli-
nient and reform. The meeting was well attended by
the most intelligent and influential men of the city.
But this was not all. So general was the indignation
felt toward tluj common council for its late unwar-
rantable conduct, that without concert several sinud-
taneous meetings had been projected by different
parties of citizens. "We are willing," said they, "to
submit to just and equal taxation. t(^ pay our munici-
pal otHccrs who devote their time to public affairs a
reasonable salary, but tlie ignorance, together witli
the lack of enersiy and abilitv manifested by the new
council in extricating the city from tinancial dilH-
culties, requires imme<liate action on the part of the
people."

At eio'lit o'clock a laroe and entliusiastic meetinijf
was held in the plaza, the cheers and groans from
which every now and tlien fell with electrical effect
on the ears of the aldermen in session near bv. ( )n
the evening of the 5th a still larger meeting, the
largest ever yet assembled in Portsmouth Square,
opeidy avowed the principle that the j'oople should
not tamely suffer wrong at the liand of their rulers.
There was no thought of disorder, or of inflaming the
public mind, or of rousing themselves into a passion.
Violence, either in word or deed, was condemned.
"We do not intend to mol) them," said ( roneral Wil-
son, who presided; "we come here to give forth the
voice of this comnumity." The great public heart
was aroused, and the [teople had resolved, cahuly but
decidedly, to tell their evil-minded offlcials to chanufc
their course or resign.

A committee of twenty-five was appointed to wait
on the council and make known the will of the people,
wliicli was, "to abandon the scheme of high salaries,
and remodel the schedule of oppressive taxation; and
unless willing to do so, to resign, and give place to
more efficient and patriotic men." The council re-

PATIENCE OP THE CITIZENS.

135

ceived this reproof coldly, and laid it. on the tahle.
This was heaping insult on injury. The people
had placed the councilnien in power; they had a
right to meet to comment upon their acts, and to
demand that those in office should not misrepresent
them.

On the 12tli of June another mass meeting was
held, and the same committee, with power to increase
its number to five hundred, was authorized to present
the same resolutions before the common council, in
such form as the committee sliould think proper. ( )\'
this committee J. L. Folsom was chairman. After
having added the authorized five hundred to their
number, the committee resolved to march in pro-
cession to the council chambers, and tliere demand
obedience to the people's wishes. The evening of
Juno I'tth was the time fixed for this second visit, but
on that day one of the great fires swept the city,
and furtlier action was delayed. The result of tliese
meetings, howevei, M'as to check the extravaganc(! of
the ofiicials, and oive them wholesome warnin<r.

These facts are important as showing the mildness
and forbearance of the citizens of San Francisco under
aggravating wrongs. Far from beino- riotous or dis-
orderly, they were lovers of law and tjuiet; and never,
until all other means liad failed, anil time had worn
patience to a film, and the actual salvation of the city
de[)ended on it, did they resort to arms. Notwith-
standing their nerve, judgment, and decision, there
never was a more orderly and peace-loving people;
otherwise how should they have staked their- all ^ov
order and peace? Surely they might Iiave rioted
witli the rest, ha<l they so chosen.

Xot until the lOtli of December, 1852, did the first
capital execution under sentence of a lawful tribunal
take place in the county of San Francisco. The name
of the person laying claim to this distinction was .lose
Forner, and his crime the murder of a IVEexican in
Pleasant Valley on the 13th of SeptenJjer. The

13G

LAW AND DISORDER.

execution took place on the slope of Russian Hill,
about three quarters of a mile from the county jail.

At Sacramento matters were no better. Not satis-
fied with attempting to overawe the people, the self-
a})})ointecl regulators of society sought to suppress
])ui)lic opinion. In a certain is.suo of the Sacramento
Times the editor, Mr Lawrence, had called the atten-
tion of the city authorities to a drinkinix-saloon, called
The Branch, nnmediately opposite his office, where
daily and nightly orgies were held of a noisy and dis-
reputable cliaracter. For this, about 'J o'clock on
Sunday night, the 13th of April, 1851, as he was
jjassing tlie place on his way liome from the theatre,
he was set upon by a gang of hangers-on, some
twenty or thirty in number, knocked down, and beaten
into insensibility. And tliey threatened with like
punishment any editor who dared question their yile
proceedings. This dastardly attack upon a worthy
man for doing nothing but his duty roused the indig-
nation of the peoi)le, who thereupon issued a circular,
signed l)y about a thousand of the best men, in which
they declared their alarm at the growing indications
of crime in their midst. "We had hoped," said they,
"that the summary j)unishment which has already
been inflicted upon a number of the villains who have
been detected in crime would admonish the balance,
and free us from any further inroads upon our laws,
our rights, or our lives. We, therefore, having heard
that they design an attack upon the various editors
of the eitv, and in their own lani»'uaije to make a clean
sweep of them, do liereijy pledge ourselves to sustain
evei'v paper in Sacramento in reprobating to the full
extent of their power the outrages of these scoundrels
in inifjuity. .Vnd we furthermore assure the editors
and })ublishers of our city, sepai-atelv and collectively,
that if any or the slightest injury be inflicted upon
one or any of them in consequence of such a course
editorial being jtursued, we will inflict upon the parties

I '

INCENDIARISM.

137

SO injuring a punishment from which they will never

recover.

To return to San Francisco. The first of December,
1850, affairs stood thus: Highway robbery, hitherto
confined to the outskirts of the city and perpetrated
only at night, had entered the town and was practised
in tlie daj'time. Crime st Jked bold!}' in the puUic
thoroughfares. Attempts at incendiarism, with a ^"iL^v
of profiting by the confusion and securing plunder,
were frequent. It was ascertained beyond (jucstion
that another organization existed, and that its agents
were in every part of the city engaged in divers oecu-
l)ations that their nefarious schemes might thereby
the better be covered. Thev had spies who usuallv
assumed the role of peddlers, and under pretence of
disposing of their wares examined prcmisi'.s marked
for robber}'. The police force was small and ineffieieut.
In case of an arrest tlie law was powerless; false wit-
nesses were suborned, and straw bail given, and not
more than one in ten was ever convictetl. Crimes
were classified and systematically parcelled out to
adepts. A large number of boys from ten to .sixteen
years of age were emj^loyed; these, trained by their
superiors in crime, displayed marvellous dexterity.
Females also belonged to the band; and there were
houses of refuge, and places where tlieir im[)lements
were concealed. Says one of the journals of the day:
''We believe it to bo the dutv of everv citizen to arm
and hold himself in readiness to act in tlie ca])acity
of guardian of public safety at any moment. There
should be a simple machine of wood erected on tlie
plaza, with a rope attached, and some five or six
examples should be made which would strike terror
into the rest."

A fire which occurred on the night of the 1 4th
of December, evidentlv the work of an incendiarv,
lighted in the iron building of Cooke Brothers and
Company on Sacramento street between Lcidesd<jrff

138

LAW AND DISORDER.

I '■

and ^Tontgomery, for the purpose of burning the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company's office near by so
as to seize the treasure left there for shipment, called
forth similar plain expressions from the Ilerahl, whoso
editor, as we shall see, was ruined by opposition to the
Vifjilance Committee of 1856: "We do not advocate
the rash and vengeful infliction of summary punish-
ment on any person against whom the proof is not
positive of his connection with those crimes; but
although opposed to capital punishment in old com-
munities, where the execution of the law is so per-
fectly systematized that justice seldom fails of its
victim, we nevertheless liclieve that some startling
and extraordinary correction is necessarv in Sau
Francisco to arrest the alarming increase of crimes
against property and life, and to save the remainder
of the city from destruction."

William Wilson was caught stealing a shirt and
vest in Middleton and Hood's crowded auction room,
in San Francisco, in Fel)riiary. This kind of thing was
becoming too common. AVith one accord the buyers
present stopped their Indding, and turning upon tlie
wretcli beat him with fists and clubs and iron hoops
until well scarleted with his own blood, when they
handed liim over to a policeman.

The I)th of March, 1S5I, witnessed an indignation
meeting on the plaza. The Herald was then the
champion of the people's reform party, as it was in
185G the ultra organ of the law and order party.
William Walker, one of its editors, for some time past
had been endeavoring to rouse the people from their
letliargy in regard to social disorder, and in so df)ing
had indulged in severe strictures on 'the masterly
inactivity of the courts. This displeased Judge Levi
Parsons, of the district-; court, who requested the
grand jury to pronounce the press a nuisance, and
punish its plainness of speech. The Herald retorted.
Walker was arrested, brought into court, and fined
five hundred dollars for contempt, which he refused to

THE CASE 0*' SLATER.

130

pay and so was sent to prison. Four thousand people
met and said the thing should not l)e ; four thousand
people condoled with Walker in prison, and requested
Parsons to resign. A writ of habeas covjms from
the superior court liberated the imprisoned editor.
Under popular censure, more fully expressed by the
state legislature then convened, the power of the irate
judge withered, and not long afterward he resigned.

The last day of this same month, while the exam-
ination of William Slater for the murder of Elijah
M. Jarvis was in progress at the court-house on the
plaza, as tlie officers were conveying the prisc»iier
from the court-room to prison, a party of twenty
horsemen from ^lission Dolores made a dash at tluan,
for the purpose of seizing Slater, taking him to the
Mission, and hanging him. The niurder liad been
committed under the mcjst aggravating eircumstaiices,
and the people knew of no earthly power from which
they might seek redress. Followed 1)V an excited
crowd, tlio otHcers hurried their prist)ner along Kearny
street, and secured liim in tlie statiou-liouse, although
they were well-nigh tram[)led by the horsemen. Tlius
foiled, the Mission men were furious. After an un-
fruitful eilbrt to excite a raid upon the prison, with
loud oaths they retired.

As if the combined misdeeds of the othf-ers of the
law and tlie legitimate dealers in hunum blood v ere
not enougii to exhaust the patience of the lionent and
industrious of San Francisco, a new order of yet
more aggravating villainy was now brought forward.
This was nothing less than a determination on tin-
part of the vultures to burn the city, for the oppor-
tunity it would otler for pillage. Fire is the devil's
natural element; and if now of the merchandise and
buildings of the city, the products of extraordinary
toil and privations, a grand bonfire could be made,
the emissaries of Satan might at one sweep avenge
all past attempts of retributive justice, and hold a
hellish jubilee.

140

LAW AND DISORDER.

The great fire of the 4th of May, 1851, occurring
on the anniversary day of the great fire of May 4,
1850, was supposed to have been the work of the
miscreants. It started in a paint-shop, the owners
of which claimed to have exercised their usual pre-
cautions. Be this as it may, eleven days after,
almost before the smoke of the great conllagration
liad wholly cleared away, there was another attempt
made to fire the city about which there is no ques-
tion. Some infiammable substance was ingeniously
arranged in a store-room of the Veranda saloon,
corner of Kearny and Washington streets, to which a
slow-match had been applied. It was extinguished
before it had spread. The next night, the IGth of
^lay, the city hospital then filled with patients was
fired by placing a burning lamp under a straw bed.
The flames were blazing brightly when discovered,
and the buildii.g narrowly escaped.

This was not all. ()n the night of the 3d of
June, one month al'tei' the last great annual May fire,
two attempts were made to burn tlie city. A pile
of shavings was found ignited under the stairway of
a now house on Commercial street, where a few
minutes before certain suspicious persons had been
seen lurking.

The same night one Benjamin Lewis, a Sydney
convict, was arrested for firing a house on Long
Wharf. During the preliminary trial a cry of fire
was raised. Though the alarm was false, the excite-
ment was so great that the officers were conn)elled to
I'einovc the prisoner to another lOom. When the
judge announced that the pi-isoner- would l)e com-
mitted for trial, and ordered the sheriff to bring him
in, from the door- way cries were heard, "Hang himl"
"Lvnch him!" "Bring him outl" Fast fillins: the
street was a tumultuous mob gathering. The mayor
ordered the California and Washington guards t(j
hold themselves in readiness, and mounting the upper
balcony, essayed to quiet the people. Meanwhile the

SAFETY OF THE CITY THREATENED.

141

prisoner was secretly removed to a safer place; anrl
on the assurances of the mayor and marshal that he
should have a prompt trial the crowd dispersed.

Fire was kinilled simultaneously in several places
on California-street wharf, where were quantities of
hay and lumber, on the 7th of June. The flames
were discovered and quenched. Next morning the
Aha California came out in a strong editorial urging
the people to unite and adopt measures for saving the
city. The day of reckoning was at hand.

CHAPTER X.

MOBOCRACY IX THE MINES.

Ell io cho di mirar mi stavii inteao,
Vidi fj'cnti fangosc in qiu'l piiiitano,
Ignudo tutte, ;■ cow semljiauto offeso.
Questo «i peicoteuii, iioii pin- con niano,
Ma con la testa, c col potto, o cu picdi,
Ti'oncandosi co 'deuti a brano a brano.

Dell 'Inferno.

While San Francisco was thus being stirred by
the spirit of evil, let us look at other parts of the
state and see liow matters were progressing there.

In the great \alleys of the San Joaquin and Sacra-
mento, during the year 1849, the halcyon days of the
previous year for the most part continued; neverthe-
less there were short, quick spasms of justice among
the miners, which as a faithful recorder of events I
cannot pass umnentioned. Although drop[)ed into
the concretions of the new societies as a hisus naturw,
they nevertheless, to a calm observer, were significant
of what woul • speedily follow.

From the time of the Greek voyager Ulysses to
that of the English philosopher Shaftesbury, dissimu-
lation has been regarded as an indispensable quality
in governing. Without art and policy, without intrigue
and overreaching, no man or set of men might rule.
Qui ncscit dii^sumi/arc, nesck regnare. The moral code
of almost every age and nation recognizes deceit as a
fair weapon to be used against an enemy.

In this respect the morals of the Californian miners
were far purer than those of the Machiavellian school.
They would shoot their enemy, or hang the enemy

(1*2)

I
C
V
U

MORALS OF THK MINERS.

143

of their camp, but they would not deceive liini. Tliey
found II way to rule themselvcH and their little societies
without Jesuitical cunning. They were the sons of
their father Adam whose eyes had been opened to
know good and evil, mid when they saw wickedness
coming into camp, warned hy the folly of their primo-
genitor, they lifted their heel and crushed it.

Foote thinks that with the greatest }jro})riety we
may laugh at him who affects to be what he is not, or
who strives to be what he cannot. Far less than the
subtle diplomatist who scorns the sim})lc methods of
honest men; far less than tlie politician who jireys on
the j)atriotisni of honest men; far less than the ruler,
or legislator, or law-manij»ulator, who wouhl tlu'ottle
honest men sooner than permit them to })unisli crime
if such action is to disturb the slumber of his sacred
form — far less than these, to whom dissimulation is
bread, do the miners of California, in their adminis-
tration of justice, subject themselves to the derisive
smile of any one. Simple, honest, earnest, they afiectetl
nothing, and in the direction of self-government, at-
tempted nothing which they failed to accomplish.
Here was a people who might give Solon oi- Jus-
tinian a lesson in the method of executing justice.
Some one has said that their practical cast of intellect
made the Romans the great law-givers of all at^es.
With equal propriety we might observe that the Cali-
fornian miners, by their cast of circumstances, have
shown to the world moie than any other peo})le who
ever lived how civilized men may live without law at
all. Their code was as far as possible removed from
that of society morals, which is founded in the main
on the malum prohibitum rule, that makes a thing
wrong because it is forbidden. It was most catholic,
most simple. Let every man do what best pleases him,
only he must not injure his neighbor; if he docs, he
will be put where he cannot. The forty thousand vol-
umes or so of sage decisions issued by the bewigged
of divers nations contain no more law than this.

144

MOBOCRACY IN THE MIXES.

, •

I ;

It is the duty of the government, if there be any
government, to protect the people; if not, of a surety
the people, if they be not dolts, will protect themselves.
The Hundred Court of ancient England was bound
to pay all loss by robbery unless it captured the
felon. It may be that we expect too nmch of
government; but if so, does not government expect
too much of us? How then shall imperfect man make
for himself a perfect government? Dull, obstinate,
and irrational in its units, how shall aggregated
humanity display moral and intellectual wisdom? But
for the so-called evils which are forever whipping
us into rectitude, we should straightway fall upon
destruction.

To Placerville belongs the honor of the first popular
tribunal of the placer-mining epoch. Distant but nine
miles from Colonia, where gold was first discovered,
the spot where now stands the town was early
occupied by diggers. Placerville, however, was not
the original name of the camp. It was first called
Dry Diggings; afterward, for the reason w^liich we
shall presently see, Hangtown.

It was not a pleasing spectacle, this first display of
unchained justice among the miners; but what could
they do? Five men, one night about the middle of
January, 1841), had entered the sleeping-room of a
Mexican gambler named Lopez, and had attempted
to rob him. One of them had placed a pistol at the
head of the gambler, while the others seized his
effects. Before they could escape Lopez had suc-
ceeded in giving the alarm. Roused by his cries, the
miners had ruslied in and arrested the whole gang.

Again I ask, what could they do? Stand there
holding the thieves until a jail was built, or until
congress should send sheriff and judge? They must
either turn them loose to further and instant crimes,
their numbers quickly multiplied by the absence of
punishment, or they must themselves do justice, God

HANGTOWN AND ViaNITY.

i4o

liclping them, as best they might. So they selected
from amongst their number twelve, who ordered the
culprits to receive each thirty- nine lashes; which
having been well laid on, with due energy and
decorum, three of the five, Garcia and Bissi, French-
men, and Manuel, a Chileno, were further charged
with robbery and attempted murder on the Stanislaus
the autumn previous. The charge was easily enough
proved; the men, lying exhausted from their late
punishment, were unable to stand or speak during tliis
second trial "Wliat shall be done with them?" the
improvised judge asked of the two hundred assembled.
"Hang them," said one. E. Gould Buftiim was there,
and mounting a stump begged them, in the name of
God, humanity, and law, to desist from their meditated
action. But the miners, now warmed with drink,
would not listen to him. The prisoners were bad
men, and this thing must be stopped at once. So
with ropes round their necks, the three condeunied
were driven in a wagon under a tree, and there
lianged; after which they were cut down and buried
ill their blankets. And thereupon the place which
before this was known as Dry Diggings was for a
time called Hangtown.

Amongst the many Edcns of this early epoch none
were more radiant than Rose Bar, where two hundred
miners were encamped in October, 1849. Of many
another Eden, and of all the country round. Rose Bar
was tlie envy, for it enclosed its Eve, a white one,
called by courtesy Mrs Mace, being the ijuasi spouse
of a New Orleans captain of that name. With rocker
and (juicksilver, returns were from one to six ounces
a day, and life was as high as the labor-returns. Life
was high, but it was soft and heavenly, for a woman
was there, a white one. Not far from her (,'abin was
a nice nest of Mississippi River poker-players, sar-
donically smiling in answer to pet names, such as Blue
Peter, Dungaree Jack, and Arkansaw Pike. Between

Pop. Tmb., Vol. I. 10

140

MOBOCRACY IN THE MINES.

such rare delights the captain was a spirit blest, for
he loved the company of the poker -players, and left
with them many an ounce ; until at length Mrs Mace,
declaring herself competent to do wickedness for the
family, left her lord and marched away to San Fran-
cisco, where she opened a house of unquestionable
entertainment. Nor could Rose Bar ever entirely
recover from the refining effects of the female presence.
Aside from this, it was an exceedingly moral place.
There were no lawyers there, no doctors, and but
one thief, Woolly Mike, who rose early one morn-
ing, and taking from his company's claim the gold
left in the quicksilver over night, went and hid it.
Suspected, searched, Mike gave the secreted amalgam
a fling which scattered it in the chaparral behind his
tent. But the glittering mercury betrayed him. He
was lightly punished with twenty -five lashes, twenty
minutes being given him afterward in which to walk
away.

And now from the close of this year of 1849, be-
hold the august mobs improvised as occasion required
in every camp and canon of the Sierra Drainage, the
quiet oaks meanwhile tasselled with the carcasses of
the wicked 1 There were mobs of every quality, and
for every emergency; tumultuous routs for the regu-
lation of a carouse; displays of brute force for the
promulgation of vulgar sentiment; violent tyrannies
for the attacking of homely prejudice and the harass-
ing of sanctimonious piety — mobile masses moulded
by wild environment to extravagant opinion. There
were mobs to establish a fight, and to settle every
species of dispute ; mobs to hang, to whip, to tar and
feather, to duck, to drive from town; mobs to guide
itinerant gamblers on their way, gently to set re-
volving run-down, erring woman, to direct the brawl-
ings of belligerent drinkers, to christianize with clul).s
celestial heathen, to assist at the shrinkings and ex-
pansions of valuable mining-claims, to dampen the

i !

VARIETIES OF MOBS.

147

enthusiasm of Mexican miners, to light free negroes
from the sacred precincts of the immaculate color.

Clothed with God-given intelligence and power,
and filled with devil-distilled whiskey, they were ripe
alike for gentle ministrations or mad extravaganzas,
for sharing their last bread and bacon with the needy,
or for administering the hempen fate to those whose
characters chance had colored. Cases there were v^^hen
a victim was required to appease the wrath of an un-
fortunate miner who had lost his gold dust, or of a
teamster whose cattle had strayed, one would answer
as well as another, and woe betide the suspicious-
looking stranger who falls into their hands while in
such a humor. Unless he can give a satisfying
account of himself, better had he never been born.
It must be admitted that somotimes the matter wus
determined before the trial, that sometimes the ac-
cused was hanged first and tried afterward, if indeed
he was tried at all. Neither did he who played the
part of hangman stop to consider his fee, nor did lie
expect anj^thing from the person executed, as once
would have been the ease in England.

"On my way to Marysville," writes Mr Coke, in
1850, "I stopped a couple of days at Sacramento.
The weather was beginning to be cold. I had been
ramblinoj all the morninof throu^^h the town, and was
just returned to my hotel, and sat ruminating over a
large stove in the bar-room, thinking Sa(Tameuto
about the most comfortless place in the world. In
the course of my walk I had observed a crowd col-
lected round a large elm-tree in the horse- market; oii
inquiring the cause of this assembly, I was told that
a man had been lynched on one of the lower bouglis
of the elm at four o'clock this morning. A newspapci-
containing an account of the affair lay on a chaii-
beside me, and having taken it up, I was perusing the
trial, when a ruffianly-looking individual interrupted
me with, 'Say, stranger, let's have a look at that paper,
will you?' 'When I have done with it,' said I, and

I4S

MONOCRACY IX THE MINES.

continued readinu. This answer would liavu satisfied

•»

most C'hristians endowed with any moderate degree

of patience ; but not so the ruftian.
over the back of my chair, j)ut

He leaned himself
one hand on my
shoulder, and with the other held the paper so that lie
could read as well as I. 'Well, I guess you're readin'
about Jim, ain't you?' 'Who's Jim?' said I. 'Him
as they hung this morning,' he answered, at the same
time resuming his seat. 'Jim was a particular frieml
of mine, and I helped to hang him.' 'Did you?' said
I; 'a friendly act; what was he hanged for?' 'When
did you come to Sacramento City?' 'I arrived only
this morning, and have not yet heard the particulars
of this case.' 'Oh well I I reckon I'll tell you how it
was, then. You see, Jim was a Britisher; that is,
he come from a place they call ]^otany Bay, which
belongs to Victoria, but ain't exactlv in the old
country. I believe when he first come to Californy,
about six months back, he wasn't acquainted none
with any boys hereaway, so he took to digging all by
hisself. It was up at Cigar Bar whar he dug, and I
haj^pened to be a digging there too, and so it was we
got to know one another. Jim hadn't been here a
fortnight before one o' the boys lost about three hun-
dred dollars that he'd made a cache of. Somehow
suspicions fell on Jim. More than one of us thought
he had been digging for bags instead of dust, and the
man as lost the money swore he would have a turn
with him, and so Jim took my advice and sloped.'
'Well,' said I, 'he wasn't lynched for that, was he?'
' 'Tain't likely,' said the ruffian; 'for till the last week
or ten days nobody knowed whar he'd gone to. Well,
when he come to Sacramenty this time, he come with
a pile, and no mistake, and all day and all night Jim
used to play at faro, and roulette, and a heap of other
games. Nobody couldn't tell how he made his money
last so long, nor whar he got it from, but certain sure
everybody thought as how Jim was considerable of a
loafer. Last of all, a blacksmith as lives in Broad

COKE'S STORY.

149

street said he found out the way he done it, and asked
me to come with him to show up Jim for cheating.
Now whether it was that Jim suspected the black-
smith I can't say, but he didn't cheat, and lost his
money in consequence. This riled him very bad, and
so, wanting to get quit of the blacksmith, he began to
quarrel. The blacksmith was a quick-tempered man,
and after a good deal of abuse could not keep his
temper any longer, and struck Jim a blow on the
mouth. Jim jumped from his seat, pulled a revolver
from his pocket, and shot the blacksmith dead on
the spot. I was the first man that laid hold of the
murderer, and if it had not been for me, I believe the
people in the room would have torn him to pieces.
"Send forjudge Parker!" shouted some. ''Let's try
him here," said others. " I don't want to be tried at
all," said Jim; "you all know damned well that I shot
the man: and I know bloody well that you'll hang
nio. Give me till daylight, and then I'll die like a
man." But we all agreed that he ought not to be
condemned without a proper trial, and as the re])ort
of the pistol had brought a crowd to the place, a jury
was formed out of them that were present, and three
judges were elected from the most respectable gentle-
men in the town. The trial lasted nearly a couple of
hours. Nobodv doubted that lie was Quilty, or that
he ought to be liangcd for murder; l)ut the question
was whether he should die by lynch-law or be kept
for a rc<xnlar trial before the judges of the criminal
court. The best speakers said that lynch-law was no
law, and endangered tlie life of every innocent man;
but tlie mob would liave it that he was to die at once;
so as it was just then about daylight they carried liini
to the horse-market, set him on a table, and tied tlie
rope round one of the lower branches of a big elm-
troe. All the time I kept by his side, and when he
was getting on the table he asked me to lend him
my revolver to shoot one of the jurymen, who had
spoken violently against him. When I refused, he

ISO

MOBOCRACY IN THE MINES.

1 s

asked me to tie the knot so as it wouldn't slip. "It
uin't no account," said I, "to talk in that way, Jim,
old fellow; you're bound to die, and if they didn't
hang you, I'd shoot you myself." "Well, then," said
he, "give me hold of the rope, and I'll show you how
little I care for death." He seized the cord, pulled
himself in an instant out of the reach of the crowd,
and sat cross-legged on the bough. Half a dozen rifles
were raised to bring him down, but refle ing that ho
could not escape, they forbore to fire. He tied a
noose in the rope, put it round his neck, slipped it up
till it was pretty tight, and then stood up and ad-
dressed the mob. He didn't say much, except that
he hated them all. He cursed the man he shot; he
then cursed the world ; and last of all, he cursed him-
self; and with a terrible oath, he jumped into the air,
and with a jerk that shook the tree, swung backwards
and forwards over the heads of the crowd.'"

Clarence King elaborates in the following language
a burlesque of the popular tribunal before the inception
of the vigilance organization: "Early in the fifties,"
he says, "on a still, hot summer's afternoon, a certain
man, in a camp which shall be nameless, having
tracked his tw^o donkeys and one horse a half mile, and
discovering that a man's track with spur-marks fol-
lowed them, came back to town and told the boys who
loitered about a popular saloon that in his opinion
some IMexican had stolen the animals. Such news
as this naturally demanded drinks all round. 'Do
you kno\v, gentlemen,' said one who assumed leader-
ship, 'that just naturally to shoot these greasers ain't
the best way? Give 'em a fair jury trial, and rope
'oil) np with all the majesty of law. That's the cure.'
SucJi words of moderation were well received, and
they drank again to 'Here's hoping we ketch that
greaser.' As they loafed back to the veranda, a
Mexican walked over the hill-brow, jingling his spurs
l)lcasantlv in accord with a whistled waltz. The ad-
v«)cate for law said in undertone, 'That's the cuss.'

BURLESQUES.

ISl

A rush, Ji struggle, and the Mexican, bound hand
and foot, lay on his back in the bar-room. The camp
turned out to a man. Happily such cries as 'String
him up I' 'Burn the doggoncd lubricator!' and other
equally pleasant phrases, fell unheeded upon his
Spanish ear. A jury, upon which they forced my
friend, was quickly gathered in the street, and despite
refusals to serve, the crowd hurried them in behind
the bar. A brief statement of the case was made by
the ci-devant advocate, and they shoved the jury into
a commodious poker-room, where were seats grouped
about neat green tables. The noise outside in the
bar-room by and by died away into complete silence,
but from afar down the canon came confused sounds
as of disorderly cheering. They came nearer, an<l
again the light-hearted noise of human laujjhter
mingled with the clinking glasses around the bar.
A low knock at the jury door; the lock burst in,
and a dozen smiling fellows asked the verdict. A
foreman promptly answered, ' Not guilty.' With a
volley of oaths, and ominous laying of hands on pistol-
hilts, the boys slammed the door, with: 'You'll have
to do better than that I' In half an hour the advocate
gently opened the door again. 'Your opinion, gentle-
men?' 'Guilty!' 'Correct! You can come out. We
hung him an hour ago.' The jury took their seats ;
and when, after a few minutes, the pleasant village
returned to its former tranquillity, it was allowed at
more than one saloon that 'Mexicans'll know enough
to let white men's stock alone after this.' One and
another exchanged the belief that this sort of thinuf
was better than nipi»ing them on siglit. When, be-
fore sunset, the bar-keeper concluded to sweep some
dust out of his poker-room back door, he felt a nio-
nientary surprise at finding the missing horse dozing
under the shadow of an oak, and the two lost donkeys
serenely masticating playing-cards, of which many
Itushels lay in a dusty pile. He was reminded then
that the animals had been there all day."

108

MOBOCRACY IN THE MINES.

Bret Harte gives a similar travesty, concluding it
in words to the effect that the crowd becoming im-
patient at the lengthy deliberation of the jury, the
ring-leader put his head in at the door and asked them
if they had agreed upon their verdict. 'No,' replied
the foreman, sharply. 'Well, gentlemen,' said the
mob man, 'take your time; but remember, we want
this room to lay out the corpse in.'

Punishment was inflicted in the same liberal off-
hand manner that characterized everything Californian
in those days. There was less splitting of hairs than
of heads. Sometimes the most trivial incident would
determine whether a culprit should be whipped or
hanged. While multitudes of minor offenders suffered
capital punishment, no more could be inflicted upon
the worst criminals. Lynching for cattle-stealing ob-
tained throughout the whole country, and even round
San Francisco Bay, as late as 1855. A criminal affair
was often made a sort cf pastime, which might be
prolonged or shortened according to the appetite of
the crowd, or the time at their disposal.

It was the Hispano-Californians, they said, wlio
stole the cattle about the Bay; but these being the
possessors of the cattle, and the lately arrived Yan-
kees needing beef, it would seem to be a question who
did the stealing. Old man Murray, as he was called,
lost at one time twenty-five American cows, wortli
four thousand dollars, and liis neighbor Fallon one
hundred animals, worth six thousand dollars. Two
Frenchmen at San Antonio, since called Brooklyn,
and East Oakland, caught butchering stolen cattle,
were tried by the people and hanged. Two other
men, Leonard and Moran, slaughtering back of Blaiz'
restaurant, near the bridge, narrowly escaped with
their lives.

When in July 1850 four Americans detected four
Mexicans in the act of burning a tent and two dead
bodies at the Green Flat diggings, not far from

SUSPECTED BODY-BURNERS.

l.-)3

Sonora, summary executions had not yet become
fashionable in those parts, though the people were
strongly tempted to hang the body- burners. The
Mexicans affirmed that they did not kill the men,
but found them there in a state of decay, and follow-
ing the custom of their country, they burned them
with their effects. It was an act of pious charity, not
an atrocious deed. There was no evidence against
them; nevertheless the miners longed to play judge
and hangman, but the time was not yet ripe for it.

At Sonora, incarnadine was the temper of the
time. On Sunday the diggers from every near and
distant camp came flocking in, each bringing his share
of general entertainment in the form of accounts of
robbery or murder, and the one who told the best
story was the best man. Thus history is made; the
positive of one becomes the comparative of another,
and the superlative of a third, the latest historian
always striving to tell the largest story. The Sunday
following the body-burning at Green Flat, over three
thousand men gathered at Sonora, and many rumors
of dark deeds were afloat. Twenty nmrders In
twenty-five days, they counted up, and robberies in
proportion. Men were bad, and women were bad.
lender the influence of rich deposits and the inspira-
tion of rivulets of rum, three or four flabby-faced,
l>lcared-cycd females, of the kind called virtuous, had
l)eou brought to Sonora, and made the nucleus of re-
Hiiod society. They used to marry quite often. One
married anew the day after her husband left for Stock-
ton; another married anew the third da}' after her
husband was hanged. And now they were present in
this crowd, speculating in their minds as to their
next change, when crack! a pistol-shot is heard, and a
stalwart miner bites the dust. So dry and tinder-
like was passion then, that men could not even meet
to take measures for the suppression of murder with-
out a little killing.

As the afternoon wore away, the air became preg-

MOBOCRACY IN THE MINES.

I 'I

; !

nant with suppressed vengeance. The Mexicans were
seized and handed over to the judge of the district.
Xcxt morning eighty riflemen marched through the
streets, bearing before them the American flag. These
Averc soon joined by three hundred miners, an embassy
from the scene of burning, with knives and pistols orna-
menting their belts, determined to sec punishment
inflicted on the burners. After some little parade,
the captain of this company waited on the judge, and
informed him that his men would brook no delay in
the trial of the prisoners; the matter must come up
before nightfall. The judge replied that that could
not be, as there was no grand jury impanelled, mean-
while warning them not to do violence.

Tuesday there were not less than two thousand men,
with muskets and rifles, marching the streets. One
would think that every gun in Tuolumne had been
brought into requisition. Men who left their digging
to shoulder a gun showed their earnestness. At three
o'clock on that day the trial of the four body-burners
for murder began in the district court. The place
was thronged within and without the court-room.
The [)risoners were arraigned, and pleaded not guilty.
At this juncture one of the guard standing on a
bench dropped his gun, the hammer of which, striking
on a box, sent off the charge with a loud explosion.
This was enough. Hundreds of weapons instantly
sprang from their sheaths, and a rush was made by
the inmates of the court-room for the door. The
scene that followed was terrible. Confinement and
the uncertainty as to what was coming seemed to
madden them. Another accidental shot brought
forth a cry of alarm, and renewed the struggles of the
inmates to reach the open air by way of door and
windows. Outside the court-room walls there was a
little shooting in earnest, but no one was killed on
that occasion. Quiet was finally restored, and after
watching the proceedings in court for a time, the
miners finally retired, and let justice take its course.

WHIPPING AND HANGING.

155

The demonstration had been made in a spirit of
mobocracy; and yet I have never known another so
largo and so .'otermined a mob lay down their power
so gracefully when assured by the judge that justice
would be done. The four Mexicans were not criminal.

Two boys, Hendricks, kept the Colusa Hotel in
1850. About the premises were some twenty wood-
choppers and regular hangers-on, among whom was a
boy named Johnson. The hotel cash was kept on a
shelf in a sardine-box; that is, such of it as was not
stolen by some unknown hand. Johnson was sus-
pected, and whipped into a confession of guilt. Mean-
while a mob gathered which did more whipping, and
talked of branding; but certain humane boatmen
interfered, and saved the lad from further brutality.
The sequel pointed to the innocence of the boy; and
it was thought he confessed to a crime nf which he
was not guilty in order to escape punishment ; for his
tormentors had assured him if he would confess he
should not be whipped further. But though pcrha])s
innocent of pilfering the Hendricks' sardine-box, it is
very certain if the boy had not been known as bad
he never would have been suspected or whipped.

An Englishman, named Sharp, formerly a sea-
captain, on Christmas day, 1850, shot to death a man
near Auburn. Sharp surrendered to the sheriff, but
was taken by the people, tiied, and executed.

Irish Dick, as the gambler Richard Cronin was
called, although but twenty-one years of age, was
known to have killed a man in a street fight, a friend,
whom he had mistaken for an assailant. When a
short time afterward he shot a newly arrived emi-
grant in a saloon, he was instantly seized and tried
by those present. Guilt was easily proved, and im-
mediate execution determined upon. Placed beneath
a tall tree, a rope was put round his neck, the other

lo6

MOBOCRACY IN THE MINES.

; '■

end of which \villiu<^ hands seized. Dick begged
to be allowed to climb the tree and jump from the
limb above, but this request was denied him. His
bravado lasted throughout the trying scene, which
was witnessed by ten or fifteen hundred people.
Dick assured them if he onl}^ had his knife, with
freedom to use it, he would like nothing better than
to fight the crowd.

Another account of this execution is given by
Saint Amant, French consul at Sacramento in 1851.
Allowance must be made for discrepancies in these
statements, as, writing the incidents of the time for
publication in France, historical accuracy would be
liable to be sacrificed to the making of a good story.
According to Amant's account, when the mob had
brought Cronin to a tall tree which had been chosen
for his execution, it was found that there was no
ladder for the hangman to climb up by. This diffi-
culty, however, was soon overcome. One end of the
rope was placed in a noose round Cronin's neck; the
(jtlier was placed in his hand, and he was told to climb
the tree, monkey-fashion, while those below would
direct him, pointing out the particular limb to which
the cord should be attached.

The condemned was allowed time to smoke a cigar,
which lie asked as a particular favor might be a real
Habana. Having knotted the rope to the branch
designated, he was then permitted to make his fare-
well address, whicli proved to be the story of his life.
He told of much wickedness, and seemed comforted
thereby. He would have continued talking for an
indeiiuite time, and so have postponed the end of
tliat recital which was to begin his eternity; but the
jiatience of his hearers being exhausted, the foreman
»jf the jury that had tried him gave the signal agreed,
and without a word further, the gambler threw him-
self from the limb on which he stood. The fall was
arrested by the avenging hemp, and the soul sped
(juickly hence.

TRIAL BY WHIPPING.

1.-.7

A trunk was broken open in a room of a public
house at Johnson's Ranch in Octol)cr, 1850, and four
thousand dollars were stolen from it. A man and his
wife, named Ilewsters, cooks employed in the house,
had occupied the room, and on them sus})icion was
fastened. They protested their innocence. With the
woman they did nothing; but as the increasing crowd
increased its potations, its members saw through the
case more and more clearly, until they concluded to
whip the facts out of the man. Tying him to a tree,
they laid bare his back, and cut it raw with a bundled
lashes. Still the man protested his innocence, and
the brutal crowd soon arrived at the same conclusion.
Commenting on the outrage, the Placer Times remarks :
"If the man is really innocent, the violators of his
person should be severely dealt with." It is by such
shallow logic we are taught politics and morals. Any
school-boy might know, did he take the trouble to
think, that the perpetrators of this deed were equally
in error, whether the man was innocent or guilty.

New York of the Pacific was the name of an em-
bryo metropolis of magnificent expectations in 1850
and 1851. It boasted a hotel called the Kennebec
House, into which three men forced their way one
night, and amused themselves by opening trunks and
carrying off the contents. Arrested by citizens, they
were tried, whipped, and branded on the hip. To
escape hanging, which one of them greatly feared,
he endeavored to kill himself by severing an artery.
That comfort, however, was denied him; for though
he cut his arm nearly oft", he was saved for milder
punishment by his whippers.

CHAPTER XI.

FURTHER ANTICS OF JUSTICE IN THE COUNTRY.

Now by Saint Paul the work goes bravely on.

Colly Gibber.

Long before high carnival was held in the canons of
the Sierra Drainage, the petty sovereignty of Sutter
liad inaugurated a system of jurisprudence, of the
Swiss captain's own invention. When an Indian com-
mitted an oft'ence against any of the white inhabitants
of Sutter's Fort, the commander of the fortress iuin-
sclf judged and executed judgment. Cahnly and iairly
as one who would secure the confidence and maintain
the respect of the natives, Captain Sutter examined
tht' cases which came before him, pronounced judg-
ment in accordance with the evidence and with the
dictates of his own conscience, and then ordered tlu-
culprit whipped or shot, accorriing as lie deserved.
This was the course of procedure where the accused
was one of his own Indians and the injured one of
his white retainers.

When a white man otleniled a white man in his em-
ploy, all the white men of the Fort, were summoned
to sit in judgment on the case. In such trials Captain
Sutter presided as cliief, and the others as associates,
or jurors, and by the tribunal so organized, the penalty,
if guilt was found, was lixed and exacted.

For criminal cases arising among the natives them-
selves, Captain Sutter arranged for them a court of
their own. He as monarch nominated the judge and
appointed the officers. Having a military organization

(168)

JURISPRUDENCE AT SUTTER'S FORT.

169

composed entirely of his own native adherents, it was
not unnatural or difficult for him to ori^anize a tribunal
in which they might try their own causes, and by their
own officers execute judgments.

No sooner was gold discovered, however, than this
ingenious method of .administering justice to the
satisfaction of all concerned, in common with every
other means for the benefaction of the natives in those
parts, was crushed under the heavy heel of gold-thirsty
adventurers.

Then l)egan in and round the Fort, buneatii the
very eyes of the occu|)ants, and indeed, in many cases,
by the occupants themselves, every species of depre-
dation, until the poor Swiss, his mills unbuilt, his
manufactories abandoned, his cattle stolen, and his
grand enterprise for the settlement and ])aciiication of
that valley forever blighted, sought refuge at liock
Farm, where he thought to die in peace, though oven
that blessing was denied him.

Samuel Brannan, at an early day, kept a store with-
in the walls of Sutter's Fort, and there learned his
first lessons in popular jurisprudence. To hini resorted
new-comers lro)ii the Bay, and miners from the
mountains, so that he possessed an excellent ojipor-
tunity for seeing and judging all. Ilis ^[oi'nu>n llock,
on whom he kept a fn.ihcrly eye, particularly on their
gold-gat her in 'j:s of which he did not decline to re-
ceive a [Portion worked on an island of the river near
by; but these gave little trouble. Indeed, as wo
havi! seen, there was a [)ei'iod of reniurkaljle quiet
about that time; but both before and after the reign
of righteousness in the mining districts, Brannan saw
and learned enough to be of value to him for tlu)
three decades which followed.

As at San Francisco, before a jail was built at Sac-
ramento, a dismantled brig lying in the river was em-
ployed for prison purposes. Many strange tales that
old craft could tell. It answered the purpose fairly —

160

ANTICS OF JUSTICK IN THE COUNTRY.

that is to sa}' for the rogues. Escape from it was
easy, so it was said, especially after the fetters were
unlocked witli money.

One issue of the Sacramento Placer Times and
Transcript, in July, 1850, contains accounts of crimes
conuuitted as follows: Twcnty-fiNO miles below the
city the body of a nmn was found with a lariat twisted
round the left wrist, neck, and shoulders, ji de(;p i;ash
over the left eve, and another under tlie left ear, the
feet tied with a black silk handkerchief, and all the
pockets turned inside out. Another body was dis-
covered tied to the limb of a tree. Xot far from Yuba
River the body of a murdered man was found. At
Nevada a lioi'se-thief had been whipped by the
people and put to work at five dollars a day until
eleven ounces of stolen »j:old-tlust should be returned.
Lastly, a dispute arising between a Xevada monte
dealer and a })erson betting, the latter drew a ])istol,
and firing missed his mark, but wounded three others.
Xo notice was taken of this affair by the horse-
thief whippers. The San Francisco l^acijic Xeics of
August 1, 1850, contains accounts of several guerilla
bands in southern California, di!mi-savago outlaws
drifted in on the tide of emiuration from the south:
also the news of a nunxler near Grayson; notice that
the citizens of Jamestown and Sonora had organized
a night ])atrol round their j'cspective towns ; an account
of the robbeiy of a monte bank at Sonora wliile the
dealer's back was turned; of another at Jamestown,
theiMii^f seizing a ba'j; containinsx oioht hundred
dollars before the eyes of all congregated about the
talde and making his escape with it; and so on. In
the last mentioned instance a comrade of tin; thief
was hanged to a rafter of the saloon, as an accomjdice,
but his I'riends paying tlie amount stolen he was let
down. The gambler put the money thus returned to
him in his box, and in less than an ]i(^ur it was again
emptied. This time the thief was instantly detected,
the rope fastened to his neck and again thrown over

CURTIS CREEK AND FOSTER BAR.

IGl

the rafter. After bolnj^ half liangcd and wliippcd ]\v.
was turned loose. Tlius it was that from small
l)L'gInnings, petty thefts, and fatal fights in which it
was impossible to determine who was most ci'imijiai,
the slayer or the slain, wickedness went on assuming
a yet more belligerent attitude, and })unislimcnt was
t'(|ually beastly — instance the hanging of one Jjowcn
in a slaughter-house at (^U'tis (.'rec.-k, January "J*!,
IS.')!, for the killinjj of Alexander Boss's.

Vt a gaming-tal)le at Sacramento two men quai--
r.llod the 2()th of February, 18.11, and stepped into
the street to iinish their tight. A third })erson, flyers,
passing, expostulated, wh(jrou})on one of the comba-
tants, Frederick J. lioe, an Englisliman, turned on him
and exclaimed, "What the devil havi- vou to sav'"'
at the same time drawing a [»istol and shooting him
through the head, lioe was arrested and taken to
ilie calaboose, round wliich a crowd oathered. crvin>'-:
'Hang him!" "Hang liimi" The people were at
length quieted by spi-eches from the better <ntizens,
will formed themselves into a tribunal, and repairing
lo the Orleans I[ot(-'l proceeded to try the prisoner'.
( J rowing more and more excited as the trial progressed,
the people in the street insisted that the investigation
rooni should be cleared of lawvers, and atlirmed
tliat it mattered little to them what conclusion the
tiihunal arrived at, they would hang the prisonei-
ill any event. Nothing was done, however, till tlie
niunk'rer was pi'onounced guilty by the tribunal.
The crowd tluMi made an attaciv on the pi'ison, but-
were kept at l>ay l)v the .sherilf and his po.ssi! for an
lioui'. The ofiicer htnng overcome at last, the door
was broken in, and the pi'isoiu'r seized and hanged
IVom an oak-tree then standing on the corner of Sixth
and K streets. About the same time tliree nun,
surprised while stealing hor.ses at Foster Bar, were
ca])tured; one was shot in attempting escape, and
tile other two were innnediately hanged.

Top. TniTi., Vul. I. 11

I !

i n

1# ANTICS OF .irSTICE IN THK COUNTRY.

Two lULii, Now Englaiidci's, caught with stolen
liorscs in their corral on the ( 'osumncs, were on the
7t]i of ^larch, IRfil, condcnined l>y a{'<-linnation and
liani4vd on tlu,' .s])ot, all witliin half an liour. A jury
ti'ial was d(?nicd them. Another horsc-thicf was
hanu'ed about tlic sanio time on the Yuha. The 2'M
of IMarcli an att('ni|tt was made at San l-'ranciseo to
l)low Ml) a new hnilding near liincon P<jint. An eij^ht-
[)ound eanistei' of powder placed in a I'ooess in th(^
wall was ignited, causin;^' a report as loud as tliat of
a cannon. An amiaole and niuch-])eloved man, I''. M.
.larvis, wliile walkiu''" with liis wife near tlie Mission,

I the niulit of the 2Gth of ?ilar<]!, was stal)l)ed i

death by one Slater. It appears Jarvis liad incense<l

Slat

er a tew (lavs previous

'}■ I

)!'!

'VculiriLi" a ii'-ht in

wliich the latti'r liad a hand. One day during' the
tlaal, winle Slater was beinii' coiKhicfcd bv the otHcers
to the prison, an attempt was mad<' l)y s(Mne niounted
iiicii iVtiUi tile Mission to seize and hang him. as has
been more fully descrilx'd in a [irevious cha[)ter, but
their effoi-t was frustrated bv th.e (»llic( I's and r.u-t wiili.

the disa])p)-oval of tlie ]»eoph\ IT
await his (j-i.d in thf district court.

e was coniiju

tted t

uis matters stood when the

••I'eat

raneisco

fire of the ith (if May for the fifth time laid \.\io city
in ashes, annihilated busin(>ss, and liopeles.sly mined
thousands of hitherto pros[)erous m(Mi. sending despair
to their hearts and misei'V to thtir homes. This was
exactly what t1n; enibohlcued mi.screants so Inng uii-
v.hipped of justice liad sworn to do, that tliey would
be aveMgcd on the citie- whos*^ pcoph- would n<t
permit theia to nnnvler ;;ud plunder at 'pleasure.
Instead of i)lan)ing tlic.se sutleiNTs for hanging, the?
wonder is how the}' could h;ive r(;mained patient so
l<»ng. This was the work of incendiaries, as several

)een, ami as was

the 1

>urnni>,r

ei'

louse was

fired

of the previous fires had be

of Stockton two (lays lat

Sa"rameiito at the .same time, and Nevada was liurned

but a i'ew weeks previous. All this was but one grand

AXTOXIO PACTIECO.

k;:;

scIkjihc concocted by tlio rascals in convention as-
Hcinbled for tlio simultaneous annihilation ol' the chief
cities of nortliern California.

Tliere was a desperate hand of horsc-thievi's in I lie
iieighhorhood oi' ^NFonte ]3iahlo in 1851, and a sou of
Antonio I?aclieco, twenty years of ai^e, was suj>[)o>ed
to he one of the number. On the ITtli «)f h\'liruarv
youn_!^ Pacheeo ^^'as detected \\i tin,- art ol' stealiii;^' a
])air of lioots from a store in Martiue/. Tho citi/LUs
determined to make an example of him, and althou^It
liis till her ))ei>'cred liis liberation, oddiiiLr t/arnestness to
liis prayers by an oiTor of two thousand dollars foi' liis
reli-ase, lliey Ixiund him t'> a tree and administered
oiH,' Iniudreil lashes witli a whip of six e(jrd'-. It was
]'eportt'd that Paeheeo's frieiids, to tlie number < i"
eighty, liad t]ir<}ateni3d to ride into INiartiiiez and bu.'i
tlie place. The citi/.tuis, alarmed at the t lireat, remo\ ( . I
their papers aJid other valuables to Benicia f rr salV
i^C'cpiug, but nothing further came of the wrath of

aeheeos.

Til/.; ueighl>orh(»od of Heading Springs an.d Secret

had

iiei

II \ isited b\' horse-thie\es iu t!i

s[)ring of lsr>l, and one man, Spoiford, was known to
ha\('. stolen a large numl)<-r of horses. At leng'h
Uradford, MeKissoek, and othei's went in pursuit -I
Spoftbrtj. They came upon him in the woitds skinning
a!i aiiteloj)e; ]>radibi'd (ired a;:!! killed him. Th« y
reeoNored nioi'e than Ibrtv stolen hor^-es.

wo tnie\'es.

with a band of mules and hoi'ses whieli

thev had stolere most of them from the ranch

O ' u

(

»a<re an(

1 Al

mon(

I, wiiile erossin-'' tin; (*osunmes wiih

their booty the 7th of ^^a^•(■li, were an*ested. (Utilt,
was so pal]>able that proof seem(.><l unuer-essary; iie\ ( i-
theless the two men were arraii'.ned, and a motion

\ .

IS made to t)T them by a |)e(»[ile's judgv and jui
As tidings of the atlair tUnv fro(n < laim to claim, the
diggers came pouring in. When they heard the farts
and Hie [)roposal, they laughed at the idea of trial

I 'I'

I! I*

it: 1

104

ANTICS OF .TUSTICi; IX TIIK COUNTRY.

uiidfi' the circumstances. What shcjiild the}' trv
theiii Ibr^ There were \hs thieves; there was llio
stolen property. Trial? Bosh! Well, then, han;^
Iheni at once. This sentiment suited better their
temper. The men were Yankees, one giving his name
as James Baxter, from Maine, and tlio other Charli.'s
Sinnnons, of Mas.sa<'husetts. When told that tliev
were to die in half an hour they heiX'jfed to l)e
iteruiitted to live a little lonj^er. This he-iutiful jjfreen
and golden earth, the all-glorious sun and sweetly
distilled air, tlu; mingletl enj<jymcnt of soul and sense
absorhing jjidpitating life, they seemed now just to
l)i-gin to enjoy, l^ut it was too late; sueh beauties
wi.re not made ibr horse-thieves. They .should die;
and they did die with the ex})iration of the hali-
liour. Duiing the season a hundi'ed thousand dollai's'
Avorth of stock had been stolen from that section, and
ihe peojjle were tired of it. Onl}' the day before one
Orville Hamilton, a horse-thiel', made his escape while
the jury wore deliberating on his case. Sage, an
acccjiuplice of Hamilton, received thirty lashes for
his .^hare.

A quarrel took place at Shasta City on the 'JOth
of March between a drunken man and his partner;
the latter was killed, and the former attem[)ted
c.sf'i»|x\ but was captured and tried l)y the mob.
The trial lasted but a few minutes before doom was
l)ronourj'ed; he sh<nild 1)e hanged at four o'clock
th;it Sunday afternoon. The man took the matter
very coolly. He had entertained no ill-will townrd
his partnei-; they had been always the best of friend-.
But the deed was don< ho «ii'eply regretted it, Init it
could not now be helped. He dcsf-rved to die, and
ihere was the end of it. Eating n hearty dinnei', he
talked as usual until the time appointed, when he
mounted the platl'orm with a firm step and quiet
demeanor. The i'o])e adjusted, he was given perniis-
-ion to speak. He warned all pi-eseut against drink;
lliat alone was now to cost him his life. He would

MOKF.LU.MXE HILL.

]r,3

like to write a letter to his wife, but supposed ho had
not time. As the thinjj before him was somethinsr
that must be done, ho might as well be about it. So
saying, he leaped into the air and came down witli a
jerk that settled his earthly affairs forever.

McEvoy and Williams were two friends living at
Mokelumnc Hill in the spring of 1851. They were
out of employment, and decided to begin business by
conducting a montc table. Tliey needed capital i'ov
the purpose, which they determined to obtain by
stealing horses. Their plans were well laid, but were
early frustrated. A horse was stolen, and IMcEvoy
was just in the enjoyment of the proceeds of tlie sale,
>.ixty dollars, when ho was arrested, taken out of
town, and given twcnt^'-five lashes.

^Ir Baker, of Brown Bar, Weber Creek, was a
(|uiet, gentlemanly person, and much respected. His
[)tirtiu'r, .Vndrew Scott, an unprincipled villain. liccanif
incensed at some trivial ofl'ence, and on the .')tli of
A})]'il kiiktl Bakei', stabbing him five or six tinirs.
Tt was generally known that Soott had niui"d< iid
two or three otlier men, among tlieni one ^^(•^^anus,
<>r Missouri. This killing of BakiM" excited intense
fedin''- amoni^st the miners, 1)ut tlu'V relVained tVoin
violent measures, and gave Scott the benetit of a fair
trial, witli a jury of twelve men. who found him guilty.
Then he was proni].lly hanged.

^FcMurtrie and .Ih'uthersat Mokelumne ITill missed
some gold dust iVoni their store in April, and, acting
on their sus])i('i(tiis, they <.nticed a young man into
a scchuled spot in tlie wocnls, where they accused li:n)
of the theft. Ills denial exasperated them, and tlicy
lashed liini w ith a I'ope and switches two hunilred and
lil'ty tiin»\s, determined to ext(»rt a confession. This
t'\|K(lient proved unavailing, and they returned to
town, wheri' a more thorouu^h search for the lost
treasure was made. It was discovered in the >|iot
where they afterward remendjcred that they had
secreted it. Thei]' \ictim was then released, and for

i^,:i

iiiJii

166

ANTICS OF JUSTICK IN THE COUNTRY.

11^

fear of like punishincnt being awarded them by the
indignant nuners the}' left the place innncdiatcly.

A liorsc-thief, named Gatson, captured in Nevada
City on tilt! 20th of May, after a trial by the people,
feceivcd thirty-nine lashes, wliicli M'ere administered
by a man whom he Mas permitted to select. On the
21)tli, ( reorge Baker was hanged by the people, just
beyond the limits of the city of Stockton, for a
crime connnitted six months before. The execution
was bunglingly done, and the bystanders surfeited of
horror.

Sometime in May a notorious robber named Jen-
kins was condemned to die by the citizens o^ El
Dorado. He made his escape, but was reca})tured
near Sacramento, where he received one hundred
lashes, was branded on each cheek with an K, and
then (lelivcn^d over to the authorities of Sacranu^nto.

Between the piiople (jf Napa and tlie people of
Beniria in May, I8.VI, there were open and declared
hostilities, and \\\r cause was not a woman. The Napa
[)eo[)ledid not like it because a Benician named Cooper
came to their town witli a jietition lo the governor
for the final release of a nnu^kivr vrhicli lie pui'[)osed

to circulate for siu:natui'

es.

Tile man killed had been

their most worshiplul justice of th; peace, and the
man who lulled him was now their 'meat,

as with

d it. ''Petition

more lorce llian elegance lliey e\[)ressec
us no ])t'titions," they said, "'and governor us no gov-
ernors; let every town attend to its own atVairs."
Bnt this docti'ine did not Just then suit Coo[)er.

1 UK I

_'ir.

Me("aule\, foi- that was the mur<lerer

iuaii\' iriends, anion

ig wh

lom Mas iiK! irovernor nnnsc

s name,
h

'i'lie go\eriior was christened .lolm McDougal, but i:i
])()lilical |)ud(lles he was familiarly called 'I d<>hn,' such
being the words begliniiug his sometimes ludicrous
iroclamations. John lUiih r. anotlier <i-overnor, could
ay claim to the same distiiuttioii. The governor and
th(> murderer wei'e friends, because the murderer had

ii ■ ii

NAPA ANT) BENICIA.

107

voted for tlu' i^ovornor, and l»ad induced others to
vote lor him. '1, Jolm,' was a «^ood j:><)V('i'nor to tliose
who murdered, oi' who wished to murder, ]iro\idi(I
they voted for him often eiiou^di; but for thi- sake of
those weak in their faitli in him, lie would ]iave it
soihid as tlie voice of his pi;o})le whicli sai<l to liim,
'LoosfU tliis l)loodh(mnd.' Hence it was that ('oo|>i.'i'
a[)peared at Napa, the scene of the slau^iiler, with
this [»etition: not that there was any need of a
]>etition so far as 'I, Jolm' was concerned, but for
the relk'X infkiencc of such prayer upon the peopK;
themselves.

'file men of Xapa, howe\er, did not want McCauley
(hscharjTjed; he had killed their justice ol' the i)eace,
and tlu'V WQYv lunv L;oinij; to kill him. Thercfoi-e they
would none of McJ)ougal, noi' of Cooper, noi' of the
petition. ( allin;^*' a meetin«»; of citizens, a ctjnnnittee
was a})pointed to wait on Mr Cooper and reipiest him
to depart. ]Mr Cooper declined. They ordered him
to 'j^o. Mr Cooper refusetl. Tiien they took him to
the W'lry and thrust him across, warnint^ him that
i'urther attempts in that direction would insure hiu)
a covering' of feathered tar and a free ride on a i-ail.
The i)eople of Xajia, in connnon with those of otliei'
l)arts of the state, were becoming tired of pai'dons ex-
tended by the gcjvernors to nnu'derers who elected
them to otii(;e. \t the ]\[arch term of the N;i]>a
court of sessions this man. Hamilton ^[cCaulev, had
liet«i tried for the murder of one Sellei's, numici])ai
judge, and condemne<l to death, the execution to take
l>lace on the l.Mh of ^lay, and they determined thnl,
repi-ieved or not, the felon should (Wv, and on the ^\■ay
iijipointed.

He was a gentleman -villain, was ^IcCauley; an
adhei'ent of southern chivalry, and a man of friends
uid famil}'. He Avas not the kind of nuu'derer that
laws were made tbi'. Liki'wise he was an honest
\illain: to him (opinions were principles, and his had
l»een handed down from anct;stors of revered uieinory,

1 1

1 y

' 1

■ ''■

fi !
>{ 1

;i 1

I' Hi

I' .1 :
III

!ii

108

ANTICS OF JUSTICE IN THE COUNTRY.

juid inculcated during his youthful days. But ho was
wrong; liis principles wore erroneous, thougii honestly
entertained; moreover, he was passionate; and for his
princij)les lie must die, not the death of a martyr,
liowever, hut that of a murderer. And for such law-
Itroakers laws were not made.

It was all done in a moment; hut though not pre-
meditated, tlie killing was unjustifiable; it was the
• 'tlect of an outbuist of passion, or a fit of tem)»oraiv
insanity, as gentle Mrs Fair's counsel would call it.

The way it ha])i)ened was thus: One day at Xapa,
for womo real or fancied offence, McCauley attempted
to chastise a black man. In days gone by he and his
sympathizers had often whipped * niggers,' but that was
where the colored man was chattel, and dare not strike
back. It was consistent in those days with chivalrous
courage to strike a man who c(jukl not strike back.
The sentiment was similar in this instance, but tlio
action and result were ditferent, from the fact that
the assailed might retaliate, and the black man Ixing
the better of the two, the white one was badly
beaten.

Xot long after a [)arty of village politicians, amongst
wliom were McCauley and Sellers, assembled in a
store, liajipeiied to be discussing the question of slavery,
wlu.'H Sellers, who was opposed to ^TcCauley in o})in-
ioii, ini[)nidently alluded to McCauley 's defeat in his
recent encounter with the black man. Scarcely were
tilt' words out of his mouth when the bowie-knife of
M( Caulcy was !)urietl in the breast of Sellers.

Thei-c was talk of instant hanging; but aside from
the objections of the law, McCauley had many friends,
and the}' succeeded in })rotectiiig him. Symj)atliy in
a great measuie turned on the slavery agitation,
which van high here as elsewhere in those days. It
so lia[)pened that in sentiment Benicia was mostly
sontliern, and Xapa northern; so that the former was
for ^Ii;Cauley and the latter against him. The tw(»
towns confronted each other, angry and belligerent.

CAPT:UN lUXTKU'.S ACTIVITY

It;!)

At this time it wa.s (IceiiK'd dangiirous for a citizen
of either place to be found in the otlier. We have
seen liow Cooper wa.s treated, but then his mission
was not one pleasing to them. On the other hand,
il. L. Kilburn, of Xapa, visited Benicia, when he was
assaulted and would iiave been badly injured but for
the interference of his friends. A party from Napa
were awakened from sleep one night by a shower of
stones which poured through the window of their
room at the Benicia Hotel. One was severely injured,
and all were glad to escape under cover of the night.

Before daylight in the morning of the day named
for the execution, the sheriff of Solano county, with
a posse of ten armed and mounted men, was on iiis
way from Benicia to Xapa with tlic reprieve in his
pocket. He would have gone the night before by a
little steamboat, of which Baxter was captain, wlilch
tlien plied between the two places. But Baxtri- was
not in sympathy with the men of Benicia; so when \\v
learned that the governor had signed the reprieve lu;
sli|)ped away before the usual hour and conveyed the
tidings to Napa. There was no hesitation l)y the men
ul" Napa as to wliat they \vould do. Napa lliver \v;i>
then crossed by means of a ferry-boat. Tlie unjust,
jiardou was coming — was, indeed, at liand. WliLii
tlie sheriff's party arrived at the ferry, strange to say,
the boat was on the other side. Lustily oflicial lungs
shouted for tlie ferryman, but there was no answei'.
All was (juiet; not a soul to be seen; and there was
notliing to be done l)ut to jiroceed u|> tla; river to
soiiK! point which could be forded. The delay thus
involved was exasperating in the extreme; but hurry-
ing forward, in due time the ])arty arrived within
tlie town. There also all was (juiet; few were .istir.
Al)out the jail notliing peculiar was observed, nothing
more than might be expected on the morning of any
ordinai'v execution. After all, thou<jfht the sherilf.
We are in good season. Everytliing is safe; nothing
could be better for our purpose. But stop! What

) : .^i

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

I.I

1.25

m 12.8

a» m

ll6J

11^
1.8

1.4 II 1.6

■^s

#V^'

Hiotographic

Sciences
Corporation

njL

£■

•SS5

33 WEST MAIN i^Wt^\

WEBSTER, N.Y. 145B0

(716) 872-4503

f f

170

ANTICS OF JUSTICE IN THE COUNTRY.

ominous-looking hemp is that which stretches from
tiic prison-door in the second story down the stair-
way to the ground? Following the rope up the stairs
and into the prison, they found attached to the end
of it, drawn tightly up to a beam in the ceiling, all
that remained of Hamilton McCauley.

The month of June, 1851, was prolific of popular
tribunals all over the country. It was now that there
was beinjT formed at San Francisco the first Com-
mittee of Vigilance, to which we refer in the chapters
followinij. But first a few more words touchinij:
affairs in the country.

The tent of a Chinaman in the southern mines
was entered by three men, who attacked him wliile
sleeping and attempted to rob him. He gave the
alarm, and tlie burglars were caught in the act, but
two of them effected their escape. The one remaining
was immediately punished by the crowd, being sus-
pended to a tree for some minutes, but released before
death ensued. Another was captured the next morn-
ing, and received one hundred lashes. The third
successfully evK:^ed his pursuers.

At Melone, by the decision of a popular tribunal,
two men were executed in midsummer, one for the
assassination of Lyon, at Sonora, and the other for
stabbing Acklin. The unfortunates were both Mexi-
cans, and the tribunal that judged them was composed
of Mexicans and Americans.

One Augier, a trader at Pleasant Springs, dis-
covered bogus specimens of gold in the dust paid him
by a Chileno who had been trading with him. The
man was arrested on suspicion and taken to other
tents, whose occupants identified him as one who had
attempted the same trick with them. Efficient and
energetic men then took the knave, gave him twenty-
five lashes, and l)ado him go and return no more.

A Chinaman, while mining at Drytown, in Amador,
was shot and killed l)v a Mexican, who made an in-

AFFAIR OF GEORGE SNOW.

171

cfFectual attempt to shoot several others. The miners
oau2rht the Mexican and han";ed him without trial.
Although the crowd favored his execution, but few
were sufficiently callous to cany out the sentence.
As no suitable rope was at hand, a log -chain was
fastened to the limb of a tree, with just enough rope
for a noose. This was placed over the man's head,
not without difficulty on account of his struggles;
but at last the execution was achieved, though in a

disijustinoc manner.

I have spoken several times of the existence
of large and small organizations for the conducting of
systematic swindling operations, but I have only one
instance where an honest man was approached with
an offer for his services in that direction at a fixetl
salary. This occurred at Nevada City, California, in
July, 1851, and a gentleman of veracity living there
at that time vouches for the truth of the statement.

A friend of this gentleman, a wild, frolicsome
young fellow, but wholly void of evil intentions, said
to him one day :

"I am offered seven hundred dollars a month to
enffasjc in stealing cattle and horses."

"Indeed!" was the reply, "that is a good salary;
why do you not accept?"

"Sir," he exclaimed, "I am not a thief I"

It appears that the ungovernable spirit and reckless
bearini; of the vounji' man had drawn this offer from
those who followed cattle-stealing as an occupation
and hired helpers at a fixed salary. It should be
loiuembered that in the days previous to the gold-
discovery and shortly following it, cattle were branded
by their owners and left to run at large, and that
tliero were immense droves of them running about,
particularly in the southern portion of the state.

Among the early ari"ivals at Sonora was George
Snow, of Maine. He worked industriously at the

17-2 ANTICS OF JUSTICE IX THE COUNTRY.

mines, until he had amassed quite a httle fortune,
enough to excite the cupidity of some Chilenos in liis
employ, who determined to kill and rob him. In
order to facilitate their design they purchased of him
a long- torn on the 24th of June, 1851, which they
agreed to pay for next day, if he would call early
in the morning at their cabin for the money. The
Chilenos lived in a sequestered spot at Dragoon
Gulch, where they thought to effect their purpose
without detection. To perfect their plan they dug a
grave for their intended victim in the ground beneath
their bed, and then awaited his arrival. Snow had
scarcely entered the cabin before one of the Chi-
lenos snatched the gold dust from his belt, while the
others attacked him with knives. Severely wounded,
with extraordinary effort he reached the opening in
the tent and called for help. His cries were heard
by some men working at a distance of two hundred
yards from the cabin; the Chilenos fled as soon as
they saw their failure. Snow survived his injuries
but a short time. Search was made for the Cliilenos,
and two of them were subsequently capturoil and
taken to Shaw Flat, Snow's late residence, wliero
trial by the people awaited them. Although the
road in that direction was thronixed, there was no e-x-
tvaordinary excitement. It was noticed that most of
the miners carried double their usual arms, and aboMt
them was an air of quiet determination not favorable
to the assassins. Two juries were impanelled, one
for each case; evidence was brought up of such con-
vincing weight tliat each jury unhesitatingly jiro-
nouneed a verdict of guilty. The younger of the
two, Antonio, had been identified by Mr Snow, in liis
dying breath, as the man who held the gold dust
while the others wei'e stabbing him. Antonio con-
fessed that he had been aware of the intentions of
his comrades for a fortnight, and knew of their
digging the grave, but did not think he was amenable,
as he did not commit the murder. The elder man

SONORA AND CAMPO SECO.

173

was sulky, and would make no confession; his visage,
marred by crime, was indicative of the worst of pas-
sions; he was large and athletic, while xVntonio was
(juite young and small of stature. Two other Mexi-
cans who escaped were said by Antonio to be guilty
of the murder; they, he said, had already murdered
three Americans, and had planned to kill another.
.Vll these villains had lived together for some time at
Di-ay-oon Gulch.

After the verdict was pronounced, the will of the
people was demanded by the chairman. In accord-
ance v/ith their vote the men were taken to the scene
of the murder, and there on Sunday afternoon at
four o'clock they were hanged, and buried in the
grave they had dug for their victim. Fully a thou-
sand persons accompanied the condemned men to
their place of execution and burial.

During the same morning, at Sonora, a serious
uielde occurred on the street. Marshal McFarland
liad arrested a Chilean, and was taking him to jail,
when the officer was fired on by a Mexican. The
marshal returned the fire, when the Mexican lUshed
upon him with his knife. Again the marshal fired,
and the Mexican fell dead; other Mexicans then
undertook to rescue the Chilean and aven<je their
tomrade's death, but reinforced by a constable, the
marshal overpowered the party, wounding three of
the assailants, and one fatally.

One Saturday night early in June five men lay
sleeping in the store of Bemas and Company, at
Campo Seco. About midnight eight burglars entered
the store without waking the occupants. Five of
I hem, each with drawn bowie-knife and cocked pistol,
[ook their stations over the five sleepers, while the
other three proceeded to rob the store. Presently
the sleepers awoke, and were obliged to remain the
unwilling witnesses of the rifling of the premises.
At length, while the robbers were carrying away an
iion chest, one of the men belonging to the store

174

AXTICS OF JUSTICE IN THE COUNTRY.

managed to slip away and give the alarm. The town
was raised and the robbers pursued. The chest was
found about four hundred yards away, but the plun-
derers escaped.

One day a man of villainous aspect dropped upon
Oregon Bar. He said his name was Walden ; that he
was without money, hungry, and thirsty. The miners
gave him food and drink, and after lying about the
place for a day or two he departed. Xo sooner was
he gone than the camp doctor missed from his cabin
a Q-old-dust has*' coutainino- two hundred dollars, and
some fresh meat cut ready to stew for dinner. The
vagrant was instantly pursued, brought back, tried,
and sentenced to be hanged; but as there was posi-
tively no testimony against him, not even sufficient to
hang a man already condemned before trial. It was
tacitly understood that the man should not be stran-
gled to death, but only choked into a coafessiou.
NYalden, though he swore ho stole nothing, apparently
did not object to be hanged, and indeed he nearly
brought on his own death, for making a desperate
kick at the bungling miner who adjusted the i-ope in
such a way as to hurt his neck, the other foot slipped,
leaving him danji^lino'. Before the miners could cut
him down life was nearly e.x.tinct, but by strenuous
efforts he was resuscitated. Tlie man would confess
nothing, and either more testimony must be obtained
or he must be discharged. A happy thought struck
the doctor. Administering to the culprit a power-
ful emetic, soon there was brought to light pieces
of meat, which the doctor thought on a pinch ho
mii^ht swear to be the same stolen from him. After
a little more choking, however, Walden was liberated.
As he proceeded on his way he was narrowly watched,
the miners thinking if he had really stolen the gold
dust he would take it from its place of concealment
and carry it away with him. But the man walked
straight along the road, turning neither to the right
hand nor the left. The miners coneluded to make

WALDEN OF OREGOX BAR.

178

ouo more trial before letting him go, and if possible
frighten him into a confession. Coming up to him
they told him they had found some fresh evidence,
and that he must come back and be hanged. " Well,"
replied Walden, "hang me if you want to, Init d<^ it
speedily and respectably, without humbug, harangue,
or torture." Finding him so much more ready to die
than to confess, they told him he might go. " Then,"
said Walden, with the most perfect nonchalance, "give
me something to drink, and trouble me no more!"
which was done.

Sunday morning, the 20t]i of June, a young man
entered a complaint to the sheriff at Sonora that,
while in the house of a Mexican woman, another
man wrenched from him his pistol, struck him over
the head with it, and then snapped it at him. The
pistol missing fire his life was spared. The sheriff
and his deputy proceeded to the house and searched
it, but finding no one there they started to go, when
on looking under the bed they discovered the man,
covered with clothes. He was armed with two re-
volvers, a double-barrelled gun, and a bowie-knife,
only. Dragging him forth they looked at him, and
finding the resemblance to the description of one of
the Campo Seco robbers so striking, they committed
hiui to prison, sent word to that place, and soon
lie was identified.

The prisoner's name was David Hill. Next day ho
was taken by the people to Campo Seco, and tried and
condemned to death. It was agreed that the execution
should take place in an hour and a half ^Meanwlnle,
as the prisoner expressed a wish to make some dis-
closures, a committee of five was appointed to attend
him for that purpose, who soon reported that they
deemed the proposed confession of sufficient im-
portance to delay the execution till the next day,
which proposal was acceded to. The confession was
made as promised, and it led to the arrest of others
of the gang. They then proceeded to execute the

V '/<

176

ANTICS OF JUSTICl-: IX THli COUNTRY.

sentence which had been pronounced upc»n him.
"About six o'clock," says the Sonora Ilcvald, "IJill
was led forth to execution. An immense number of
acc()m])lices and other villains had collected I'rom
various camps. After the i)risoner was ))laced unoii
the stand he made a few remarks, describing" his life
as one of crime, and warninL>' others against Ibllowinn'
his coiu'se. He also said that he had robbed and
stolen, and done other acts of^ crime, but had nevei'
shed blood, and he threw himself upon the mercy of
tlie people. The question was then put, Shall lie be
hanged? A large number answered ay, but an equal
number responded in the negative. Inunediately some
hundreds of jnstols were drawn, and a universal stam-
pede occurred. Hoi-semen plunged into the crowd
and over them, and the people ran in every direction.
Oi'der being partially restored, several persons s[)oki'
for and against the execution, until at lenixth Geor«>"e
Work arrived by himself and asked to be heard. He
then pledged his own life that the prisoner should be
forthcoming at the district court if they would deliver
him into the hands of the civil authorities. His
remarks \vere responded to by cries of 'Thornlyl'
'ThoT'iily I' In the excitement the prisoner was taken
from the stand, his hands all the while oinioncd be-
hind him, and he was thrust into a wagon, which was
inunediately driven off at a rapid rate for Sonora.
The sherift' and one other person were also in the
wagon, and several others accompanied them on horse-
back. News of the result having reached here shortly
after the rescue, Mi' L. D. F. Edw'ards, accompanied
by E. Lindberg, with a gong, passed through the city,
and called a meeting of the ]ieo]5le instantly in front
of Mr Ilolden's store. Mr Edwards then addressed
the crowd in a short but very energetic speech, re-
ferring to the escapes of criminals heretofore, and the
danger of our citizens while such thieves and rascals
were permitted to escape. He proposed to take tlu;
prisoner as soon as he might arrive in town and hang

DOINGS OVER DAVID HILL.

1 1 $

him. There was not u dissenting voiee. The crowd
then prepared with weapons to moot tlie sheriiK and
the prisoner at the entranee of the city. Tliey canu'
in a wagon, with two persons alongside on liorsrhaclc
M'ith pistols drawn. But all was of no avail. The men
in that crowd were not to be frightened. They fol-
l()\\\>d the wagon, driving at a rapid rate, until it stiuck
against a })ost, it being dark, (leorge Woik then
jumped out with the prisoner, holding him by the
collar, and both ran at full speed for the jail, plunging
through the arroyo, while the crowd behintl were
;h;)uting, 'Stop him in front! We are afraid to shoot
lest we may kill our friendsl Stop him in front!' ^Tr
l-iindberg soon caught the prisoner behind, and hung
on to him, compelling Hill to drag him along, and thus
impeding Hill's progress. Colonel Cheatham, also, all
praise to the man, i-an ahead at full speed to the jail,
and })lanting himself before the door, cocked his re-
volver, and as George Work and the prisoner came
running up, he placed one hand on the prisoner, and
]n-esenting his pistol toward George, said: 'George,
you have a pistol and I have a [)istol; 3'ours is cocked,
and so is mine. Blow away! I can kill too— but let
Una man go!' Others by this time came up, and (^ne
party taking George, another the prisoner, no shots
were exchanged, and the rescue was made. Two
persons threw a rope over the [)risoner's neck, and
away he was led to execution. The place selected
was the limb of a tree behind the El Dorado. A
minister was requested, and iifteen minutes allowed,
tlie prisoner being surrounded by a ring of tirm men,
wJio were cool and determined in tin; work before
them. A large crowd was gathered lound; but
all were still as death. The tlfteen minutes having
expired, the signal was given, and in an instant tlu-
wretched man was hanging by the neck. There was
scarce a struggle. The crowd were deeply imjiressed,
]iut all were satisfied of the righteousness and neces-
sity of the punishment. All through the city, the

Pop. TniD.. Vol. I. 12

iS*:

178

ANTICS OF JUSTICE IN THE COUNTRY.

rowdies, men who live sumptuously and yet do no
work, men who are marked, and against some of whom
there are more than suspicions of guilt, were solemn
and subdued. Two or three might be seen in a squad,
in various places, talking softly, and evidently alarmed
for their own safety. We say, keep the halter ready,
and use it whenever one is caught, be Ikj American
or foreigner. We glory in the fact that American
justice is dealt out to all alike. Hill was from Cort-
land county. New York. Among the last words
uttered by him were that his confession was true,
and the several persons implicated by him were guilty
as he had described." •

Sonora at this time was one of the largest and
most thriving towns in the southern mines. They
were a rioting, roistering crew, and the people of Co-
lumbia, near by, were not far behind them. Popula-
tion there was extremely mixed, and the Mexican
element, largely infused from the first, tended in
nowise to allay eruptions. But while there were
scores of lir.nging scrapes before this in the mines, it
was not until midsummer, 1851, that San Francisco
awoke to her high privilege. i

CHAPTER. XII.

THE BURDUE-STUART AFFAIR.

My life is ono demd horrid grind.

Kirhola.1 Nickhhy.

On one of the principal thoroughfares, and in one
of the most central business localities in San Fran-
cisco, that is to say on Montgomery street, one doni
from Washington, was situated the dry-goods house of
C. J. Jansen and Company. The firm was highly re-
spectable; their business was large, and their dealings
fair. The senior partner, Mr Jansen, was a man of
slight physical build, but intellectually strong, and
though of somewhat grave demeanor, his warm lieai't
and unobtrusive ways had won him a host of friends.

American merchants devoted more time to business
then than now ; in California they confined themselves
more closely than elsewhere. All who had conic
liither must lay the foundations of fortune, and each
was eager to outstrip competitors and occupy a front
l)osition. Furthermore, social intercourse offered few
attractions to minds saturated with such ambition;
and public affairs, which, through neglect on the part
of good men, had fallen into the hands of low for-
eigners and professionals, were repugnant to all honest,
liigh-minded citizens. Hence it was that the partners
of large firms were found at all hours of the day
attending to business, waiting personally on their
customers, and at night writing up their books, often
cooking, eating, and sleeping on the premises.

About eight o'clock in the evening of February 19,

( 179 )

ISO

TOE IJURDUE-STUAKT AlFAIIt.

1851, a man entered the store of Mr Jansen and
be^jjan to examine the goods. Shding noiselessly
about, he looked at hats, shirts, and ov^cralls, mean-
while watching narrowly the door, and taking in the
general situation.

There was nothing peculiar in the appearance of the
man. In those rough days, and in the absence of
refining woman, few were very particular about their
dress, and those few were not of the better sort. In
the mines white starched linen was the garb of vice ;
'biled shirts' covcied the black hearts of nuu'derers
and the soiled character of gamblers, saloon -keo})crs,
and })ettifoggers. Honesty throve in coarse woollen,
and often under the ragged red shirt were belted hun-
dreds of dollars in gold dust, the result of sweating
toil; therefore it was the most difficult place in the
world to detect shades of character in dress. Dress
could be so easily assumed without exciting suspicion,
for in the multitudinous changes of place and occu-
pation everybody was throwing away his old garments
and putting on new.

Some of the streets of San Francisco were at this
time dindy lighted; others were not lighted at all.
It had been raining a little during the vening, and
the bright blaze from the chandeliers of gambling-
saloons which poured upon the miry unpavcd streets
rendered the surrounding darkness only more opaque.
Neveitheless it was yet eaily, and business men had
not closed their doors for the night.

Mr Jansen was alone in the store when the cus-
tomer entered. The man's face was covered with
thick nmstache and whiskers; he had on a gi'ay coat
and broad-brimmed hat, and acted as if slightly in-
toxicated. At length stepping toward Mr Jansen,
wlio was back at the desk, he said he wanted to buy
a dozen blankets.

Mr Jansen moved forward and laid his hand on a
])ile of colored blankets, when the man said: "No,
white."

THOMAS BURDUES STORY.

181

Just tlu'ii a 11 other man ontorcd the store and also
asked for blankets, lie was taller tluin the other, was
partially niuttted in a cloak, and wore a hat pointed
in the (3rown. The room was fifty feet long, and
was lighted by one candle only which stood on the
desk. The tall man did not enter more than twenty
feet from the door. While ^fr Jansen was stooping
to get the blankets, the tall man cried *'NowI"
Whereupon the short man struck the store-keeper
senseless with a slung -shot, and the other rushing
forward, both beat liim on the head and stamped upon
his breast until they thought him dead, or at least
sufficiently at rest to give them no further trouble.
Then they opened the desk, and taking what money
they could find, about two thousand dollars, quickly
fled.

From the time the tirst man asked for blankets the
whole aifair ci 1 not occupy three minutes. A\. length
Mr Jansen so far recovered as to crawl to the door
and give the alarm. Theodore Payne, whose store
was then opposite, and who had been waiting for ^Mr
Jansen to accompany him to dinner, as was his custom,
immediately ran to his assistance, but the robbers had
made good their escape. The authorities were notilled
of the circumstances; the appearance of the men
was described by Mi' Jans(3n, and a thorough search
instituted.

It happened that at this time the police were in
search of one James Stuart, who was charged with
liaviiig murdcved the sheriff of Auburn, and had
escaped jail two months befoi'C at Sacramento, where
he liad been confined awaiting trial. Thui'sday, the
day after the Jansen I'obber}', a man was arrested ^vho
gave his name as Thomas Burdue. He had a long
story to tell about his departure from S^'dney, leaving
there his wife and children, and coming to Caliioniia.
Unable to find employment, he went to the mines,
but there met with little success, scarcely taking out

muT

i! I-

III!

182

THE BURDUT -STUART AFFAIR

gold enough to buy him food. For several months ho
was prostrate with fever, and but for the attention of
kind-hearted comrades would have died. But saddest
and strangest of all, he had been persecuted to the
verge of insanity by the hounds of the law. Thrice
had ho been arrested for crimes which he never com-
mitted; once he escaped, but twice, at different times
and places, he had been tried, convicted, and barely
escaped hanging^, and yet he was as innocent of crime
as any man in California.

It was a good story, too good, indeed, for belief,
and had been well told. As usual in such stories,
part of it was natural enough, but part of it was of
so startlin<j: a nature that the wonder was how the
prisoner thought any one should be so credulous as to
iDeliovc it. No, Thomas Burdue was but one of half
a dozen aliases of which James Stuart was the real
name, so every one believed; and further, he was no
other than one of those, the shorter of the two, who
assaulted Jansen the evening previous. On Friday,
the 21st, while deep in the fascinations of a strap
'^anie on Commercial street, another suspected person,
named Wildred, who corresponded in appearance to
^Ir Jansen's descri})tion of the tall robber in the
cloak, was apprehended and placed in confinement.

Throughout the entire comnmnity there was the
greatest excitement. Crowds gathered round the
1)uilding whore the prisoners were confined, and
threats were made to take them out forthwith and
hang them.

There was no question in the minds of any that
these were the true offenders. About noon on Satur-
day they were taken from the station-house by tlie
marshal, and under escort of a strong police force
were conducted to the residence jf Mr Jansen, who
was lying ill of his wounds and unable to attend court.
Mr Jansen was sworn, and while his testimony was
being taken Wildred was brought in. Jansen recog-
nized liini as the taller of the two men; he would not

TRIAL OF THE JANSEN ROBBERS.

IS.T

swoar positively, still he was sure this was he of the
cloak and pointed hat. After further testimony was
taken Stuart was introduced, and Mr Jansen swore
that, to the best of his knowledge and belief, this was
the villain who struck him down. When Wildred's
cloak and Stuart's hat were on, Jansen said he could
not imagine a closer resemblance.

On their way back the prisoners were followed by
a mob, who cried :" Hang 'em 1 " "Lynch 'em!" And
once, while crossing the plaza, a rush was made for
Stuart, who appeared to be the more obnoxious of
the two, from the fact of his having committed the
murder at Auburn. The attempt to seize him, how-
ever, failed, and the two men were again safely in-
carcerated.

At two o'clock the same day they were brought
l>efore Justice Shepherd for examination. Hall Mc-
Allister appeared for the prisoners, and H. H. Byrne
for the people. After the reading of Mr Jansen's
deposition on behalf of the prosecution the defence
was opened. John Wilson swore an alihl; swore he
was playing cards with Wildred at a gambling-house,
corner of Commercial and Montgomery streets, from
lialf-past seven till ten o'clock, and that during that
time Wildred had not left the room for a moment.
He said he had known Wildred for six months; that
lie was a respectable person, and a man of family.
S. J. Marks also swore that he saw him there.

Scarcely one who heard this evidence believed it
true. The court was now adjourned till Monday. At
the time of adjournment the room was packed witli
])eople, and round the city hall, while the examination
had been going on, were gathered more than tivo
thousand men.

Scarcely had the judge announced adjournment
when the crowd raised the cry, "Now is the time!"
and rushed upon the prisoners. Great was the U[)-
roai- wliich followed. Chairs, tables, and railings gave
.va}- before the infuriated populace ; Stuart was seized

184

THE BURDUE-STUAKT AFFAIR.

by one and Wildred by another, but the assailants
were beaten off by the sheriff and his assistants. The
Washington Guards, whose armory was next door,
then rushed to the ^escue of the prisoners, and the
crowd was driven from the court -room. The pris-
oners were conveyed to the judge's private room, and
the Guards returned to the armory amidst groans, and
hisses, and cries of "Shame!" " Shame 1" The people
were then addressed by several of the most respect-
able citizens; they were urged not to act rashly, and
quiet was at length restored.

As night came on, the numbers about the court-
liouse increased to six or seven thousand. Although
there was great excitement, order was maintained,
and there was no further attempt at violence. It
was not a mob; it was a movement of the people,
made not with the object of interfering with justice,
but to assist justice. The impromptu meeting was
organized, and W. D. M. Howard called to the chair.
A committee was ajjpointed to see the prisoners
properly guarded during the night, and to report at
a meeting to be held on the plaza next day at ten
o'clock. The crowd then quietly dispersed.

At the meeting next morning which numbered
eight or ten thousand persons, majority and minority
reports were read — the first as follows: That they
recommend to the citizens of San Francisco to pro-
ceed forthwith to appoint a committee of thirteen
citizens to act as judge and jury, to proceed to the
trial of the suspected criminals at two o'clock that
day. The said committee to act in conjunction with
the court if the court be willing; if not, to proceed to
trial by themselves ; they would recommend also that
proper counsel be assigned the prisoners, in case they
have none already engaged. The minority of the
c(niiniittee, through Samuel Brannan, recommended
immediate punishment. "Why should we speak to
juries, judges, or mayors?" cried Sam, in angry
perspiration. "Have we not had enough of such

DISMAL PROSPECTS.

185

doings the last eighteen months? It is we ourselves
who must be mayor, judges, law, and executioners.
These men are murderers and thieves; let us hang
them!" Meanwhile printed bills had been posted
about the streets, which read as follows:

"Citizens of San Francisco 1 The series of murders
and robberies that have been committed in this city,
without the least redress from the laws, seem to leave
us entirely in a state of anarchy. When thieves
are left without control to rob and kill, then doth the
honest traveller fear each bush a thief Law, it ap-
pears, is but a nonentity, to be scoffed at; redress can
be had for aggression but through the never- failing
remedy so admirably laid down in the code of Judge
Lynch. Not that we should admire this process for
redress, but that it seems to be inevitably necessary.
Are we to be robbed and assassinated in our domiciles,
and the law to let our aggressors perambulate the
streets merely because they have furnished straw
bail? If so, let each man be his own executioner.
Fie upon your laws ! they have no force. All those
^\ ho would rid our city of its robbers and murderovs
will assemble on Sunday, at two o'clock, on the plaza."

" We are here without jails," says the Herald of
February 22d, "without penitentiaries, and without a
police sufficiently strong for the circumstances; and
conjoined with these deticicncies we have a bankrupt
city and an incompetent council. On whom must we
depend for relieving the town from the desperate and
abandoned scoundrels who now infest it? There is
clearly no remedy for the existing evil but in the
strong arms and stout souls (if the c.tizens themselves.
But in order to be strong we must be organized, foi-
the enemy we have to deal with is well drilled and
disciplined. It behooves us, then, to take some steps
tor concentrated action in order to put a stop to the
dark and atrocious crimes committed in our midst.
Let us then organize a band of two or three hundred
Regulators, composed of such men as hove a stake in

186

THE BURDUE-STUART AFF.UR.

;

iJiiilliin

the town, and who are interested in the welfare of the
community. The very existence of such a band would
terrify evil-doers and drive the criminals from the citv.
If two or three of these i-obbers and burglars were
caught and treated to lynch law, their fellows would
be more careful about future depredations."

After speaking of the custom of the British minis-
try to resign their position when one of their leading
recommendations is defeated in Parliament, which is a
sure indication of lack of confidence, and recommend-
ing California office-holders to do likewise, the editor
of the Alta California of Sunday morning goes on to
say: "With one consent the people have taken into
their own hands the adjudication of law and justice,
because they knew no confidence could be placed in
our tribunals. And why has the community come to
this conclusion? Simply because our courts, instead of
being a terror to evil-doers, have proved themselves
the protectors of villains, and thus encouragers of
crime.

" This is a hard accusation, but it is true. There
can be no doubt that in California five hundred mur-
ders have been committed. And yet, with enactments
defining the crime of murder and affixing the penalty
of death for the crime on our statute-books, not one
single offence has been punished b}" these courts.
Every murderer who has passed through the mum-
mery of an examination or trial has been let loose
upon society again, with the endorsement of the court
upon his character that he is not guilty. Thus he
has been made current coin of the community, while
before he was at best but bogus in public belief, even
if suspicion alone rested upon him. Courts have thus
gendered crime by nourishing the criminal. It will
not do to tell our people that this utter impunity has
been the result of causes beyond the court's control.
Xo one will believe it; no one ought to believe it,
simply because it is false and the people know it to
be false."

TVTLLIAM T. COLEMAN.

|)Ose

^urt

bile

Like many others, Mr WiUiam T, Coleman had
been attending to business up to Saturday night, and
although interested in current events had given thenj
no special attention. Wending his way Sunday morn-
ing after breakfast toward the old Graham House,
corner of Pacific and Kearny streets, in the base-
ment of which the prisoners were confined, he saw
in the faces of the citizens bent in that direction un-
mistakable evidences of anger, which as lie walked
became somewhat contagious. Considering the possi-
bility of a rough turn in affairs before the day was over,
in which perchance he might participate, the thrifty
young merchant returned to liis room, laid aside
his Sunday suit, and put on plainer apparel. WJu'u
he reached the scene of action, the mayor from the
balcony was urging tlie people to disperse, and protler-
ing the strongest pledges that proceedings in this trial
should be prompt and decisive. Others spoke in tlie
same strain.

It soon became apparent to Mr Coleman that those
speeches tended to irritate rather than to allay the
excitement. Some laughed at promises; others re-
mained sullenly silent. Many had their small -arms,
and from almost every eye shot angrj^ impatience.
Though without leadership, without concert of action,
the heterogeneous throng seemed possessed of a com-
mon purpose. There appeared to be real danger that
this sense of burning wrong would break out into
excess, that the peo})l(j would tak'3 possession of the
building and hi • the prisoners.

Coleman hastily revolved the matter in his mind
and determined to try a middle course. Next to
downright villainy he hated mob violence. He re-
spected the law; even the bloodless skeleton of the
law lie had ever regarded as preferable to anarchy.
Was it not possible to organize a court of the people,
■'<uh colore juris, if the law would; if not, without the
sanction of the law, and so maintain the integrity
both of the law and of the people? He would try it.

188

THE BURDUE-STUART AFFAIR.

Entering the building and making liis way to the
front balcony, he waited his opportunity, and just as
one of the speakers closed an urgent appeal to the
people to disperse, go home, and leave everything to
the officers, he swung himself well out, and with a
wave of the hand cried, ''No! We will do no such
thing! The people here have no confidence in your
promises, and unfortunately they have no confidence
in the execution of the law by its officers. This state
of affiiirs has gone too far. Patience has fled. I pro-
pose that the people here present form themselves
into a court, to be organized within this building
immediately; that the prisoners be brought before it;
that the testimony be taken, counsel on each side
allotted; that the trial be begun by twelve o'clock,
and conducted fairly, dispassionately, resolutely; and
if the prisoners be found innocent let them be dis-
charged, but if guilty let them be hanged as high as
Haman, and that before the sun goes down!"

For an instant tliere was silence, breathless, almost
painful; the street was waiting for the next word;
but it was only for an instant. Then burst forth 1(JU( I
and long applause, which brought relief The clouds
cleared from men's faces. The words had been spolcoii
which each wished to speak. In the abrasions of this
impetuous society the steel had struck the flint and
kindled the spark wliich should liberate its smothered
wrath. From a thousand tongues the shout went up,
"Yes; that's it!" "You are right!" "That's tlio
leuied}'!" Already the great heart of that tumultu-
ous assembly was won; now to the quieting of it.
"We don't want a mol)!" continued the speaker;
"We W(m't have a mob! Let us organize as becomes
men; here; now; as a committee of citizens, and in-
sist on the right. All is ready; the witnesses are at
hand; let not justice be further cheated."

The proposal was put to vote, and a unanimous
*ay' was the answer. Every good citizen was then
invited to enter the building who could; the rest were

INFORMAL COURT ORGANIZATION.

ISO

to stand without and guard affairs witli patient quie-
tude. Coleman then entered the inner hall, which was
used as a court-room, followed hj a crowd. Mounting
a chair, he asked tliem to choose from among their
number one who would act as judge, to impanel
twelve jurymen, and select counsel for the prosecution
and for the defe'ice. He also recommended that those
without should organize and surround the buildina-,
which was done. J. R. Spence was appointed judge,
and C. L. Ross and H. R. Bowie associate justices.
Wm. T. Coleman was called on to act for the prose-
cution, and Hall McAllister, Calhoun Benham, and
D. D. Shattuck volunteered their services for the
defence. The twelve jurymen were sworn in, and
after a short adjournment, about half-past two all
were ready and the trial proceeded.

Judge Shepherd entered his official protest against
the proceedings, but no attention was paid to him.
Coleman opened the case briefly for the people and
was followed by McAllister. The latter asked that a
iioUe prosequi should be entered, and remarked that
it ill became men to trample underfoot the high
dignity and sacred rights of that law the blessings
of which they had all their lives enjoyed. Cole-
man replied that for the Roman cede, and for the
law as executed in France and England, and for the
great lights of the law, he entertained profound
respect. But wdiile the world from time immemorial
has had its just ordinances and able advocates, un-
f(n^tunately there have always been parasites, men
who are nowadays called pettifoggers, and the}' with
the unworthy agents of law had unhappily brouglit
it too often into contempt, had thwarted its wise and
just designs, and thereby hazarded the lives and proji-
erty of the people. It was not laws, but the criminal
lireach of them, that he complained of; for the vindi-
cation of the law, not for its overthrow, the people
were there gathered.

Every exertion was made to calm the passions of

100

THE BURDUE-STUART AFFAIR.

II '

the multitude, and except occasional outbursts, general
good order and quiet prevailed. The prisoners were
kept out of court lest their presence should fan the
excitement. Witnesses were examined and the case
submitted. About nine o'clock the jury retired, and
after a long absence returned with the announcement
that they could not agree.

It was well that the bleak winds and fatigue had
chilled the impetuosity of the morning, and that
many had in consequence withdrawn to their homes.
Xevertheless there were yet remaining those who for
twelve consecutive hours had stood massed against
that building waiting to see what this new-fashioned
tribunal would do, and whose patience now gave
way. "Hang them anyhow! ' they shouted when
they learned the result. "They deserve it!" But
Coleman said, "No! Though I feel the mortifica-
tion and chagrin no less keenly than you, and though
I believe these men guilt)% there must be no violence.
We have done our duty; we cannot afibrd to make a
mistake; our judgment is not superior to that of
others, and we must abide the decision." The jury
was discharged, the remainder of the crowd dis-
persed, the prisoners were left with the county officers,
and remanded to jail.

During the Sunday trial W. H. Jones testified that
he saw two spots of blood on Stuart's clothes, one
on the shoulder and one on the elbow. McGilbert
recognized Stuart as an old offender ; he had seen him
at Sacramento and elsewhere, and knew him to be a
great scoundrel. James A. Glen testified that the
prisoner was once arrested at Foster Bar for stealing
four thousand dollars, and that he narrowly escaped
hanging by the people. Mr Jansen was again asked to
say whether these were the men who assaulted him,
and he answered, more positively than before, that
they were ; that he was undecided at first, but now he
was sure. Many more bore witness on the one side

GEORGE E. SCHENCK.

101

and on the other, some affirming that Stuart was a
good man, and was somewhere else when Janseu was
struck, and others as sure that he was a notoriously
bad character, and was at or near the spot at the time.

After the jury had retired to deliberate, a person
appeared before the court who wished, to testify that
Stuart was with him on the night of the assault from
seven till eleven o'clock, but it was decided that his
evidence should not go to the jury.

George E. Schenck was a member of this jury; and
in a lengthy and clearly written dictation upon the
subject he tells me of the doubts ho entertained; how
Jansen was not positive as to the identity of the men,
and how the prisoners were not present at the trial,
being kept in the marshal's room, on the second lloor,
under the cots on which the officers slept, and there
concealed by blankets hanging over the sides of the
cots to the floor. Thence during that same night
they were taken elsewhere, for fear of the multitude,
and secreted for several days. "Two others coincided
with me in regard to it," says Mr Schenck, "and we
asfrced to bringf in a verdict that we could not ajjree.
Tliere were nine for conviction and three who enter-
tained doubts. This was about nine o'clock at night.
On our coming into the court-room and announcing
this fact, the outside crowd broke in the windows,
rushed in at the door, broke up the railing round the
bar, and were about to make an attack on the jury,
when the jurors drew their revolvers, and rushing
back into the jury-room there remained until the ex-
citement had somewhat abated."

There were several impromptu meetings in various
parts of the city on this Sunday. On Montgomery
street a red-faced, shock-headed judge was holding
forth to a knot of listeners, and denouncing in strong
terms the lawless proceedings of the day. "Law!
law! talk of law!" exclaimed the deriding crowd.
"We get heaps of law, but little justice. All that
law in California seems to be good for is to empty

THE BUK DUE-STUART AFFAIR.

I t

money from the pockets of the people into the pockets

f the judges." Then came hootings. "Water lots!"

lied one; "Colton jxrants!" "Straw bail!" "Boiled

i'»

eggs for the lawyers and acorns for the peopl
shouted others. And when a stronjLf clear voice rang
out, "Tar and feather the old fellow!" and the judge
saw in the many eyes directed toward him a new and
not .i-ssurinc: lisxht, he thousfht it best for him to mi
while he could. So he moved alonij.

As John Wilson, who testified to an alibi on behalf
of Wildred, was passing down Long Wharf on Sun-
day, he was recognized l>y the populace, who raised a
cry against him. "There goes one of 'em!" they
shouted. "Stop the perjurer!" "Duck him!" "Throw
him off" the dock!" Frightened half out of his wits,
he made good use of the remainder, for clearing the
crowd at a bound or two, the fellow ran like a deer uj>
Commercial street to Montgomery street, where turn-
ing the corner he darted into a store, slammed the door
after him, shot out through the back way, and hid
himself under a pile of empty cases, thus eluding his
pursuers.

Charles Duane, who was at the time on trial before
the recorder for shooting one Amade, was surren-
dered by his bail and committed to prison. The fact
was, Duane could sleep better under the guardianship
of the law than when left exposed to the fury of the
mob. Whenever the people became excited the jorison
was the murderer's haven of rest; then the law was
his best friend.

The people plumed themselves on their good be-
havior. Sa3'S the Daily Balance of Monday morning :
"For two days the lives of two human beings, the
majesty of the laws, and the peace and character of
our city, have hung on the will of an illegal assem-
lilage of the people. Yet, thanks to the good sense,
the love of justice, and the habit of self-government
which characterize our American community wherever
it has not been subjected to the deteriorating influ-

POPULAR OPINION.

103

cncca of great cities, they have passed through tlio
crisis uniiarmed. It is a most consoling and <rrati-
fying result, which every lover of his country and
of his kind must regard with satisfaction and with
thankfulness." "It was one of the most impressive
demonstrations of the power and majesty of the
])eople we ever looked upon," says the editor of the
Pactjic Ncirs, writing Monday morning. "As yet no
murderer has been punished under our laws. Here-
after no criminal can go free except at the risk of
anarchy, from which we have escaped only by a for-
bearance on the part of the people beyond all praise. "
"In no city in the workl, perhaps, save this," wrote
the editor of the California Courier on Tuesday, the
'ioth, "could a community be excited and aroused so
violently without committing some excesses; yet our
people throughout Saturday and Sunday committed
no breach of the peace whatever. The feeling and
interest manifested arose from an intelligent and
deep-seated conviction that these men were two of an
organized gang of desperadoes o"d villains who have
been at all hours of the day and night committing
outrages upon the lives and property of our citizens.
Also because it was believed they would be sworn
through the courts by their confederates. Our
people, under the circumstances, have shown great
forbearance, moderation, and respect for the laws.
They have now, however, made up their minds that
there shall be no more straw bail taken, and no more
false swearing: from suborned witnesses to shield and
protect the guilty in their outrages."

One of a thousand similar speeches made on the
Sunday of the trial is given by the Erenincj Picayane
of Monday: "While mingling with the crowd before
the City Hall yesterday afternoon, a tall, gaunt indi-
vidual, with black eyes and an abundance of hair, broke
out indignantly after this fashion: 'Cuss me, what a
country this hero is for regulating things 1 Where I
come from those chaps in thar would have swung long

Por. Tniu., Vol. I. 13

104

THE nURDUE STUART AFFAIR.

ajjj'o, ami no 8peochifyin<jf and liunilmtjfGfinjjf tliouiL,^Iit
of. Hero I was somo two or throe hours yesteiday,
and nothiii' done. Well, I come here aceordin' to a|)-
])intn»C'nt at nine o'clock this niornin', to see the
thinfjf done all on the square, and here it is nearly sun-
down and nothin' done yt;t! Cuss nie, I have helped
swing nine redskins and three ^lexicans in one fore-
noon, and no damn fuss made about it by any one.
Cuss me, but I'm clean sick of this countiy, where
they let cussed red devils and white wolves run
over them without so much as slippinfj the wind
of one of them when he's caught! It's a weak
country — an unnat'ral place, and fit only for greasers I'
As he concluded speaking, his small black eyes glanced
contemptuously about him for a moment, when he
elbowed his way out of the throng."

Thus the people's tribunal failed to convict these
men, and left them to the officers of the law. Wil-
dred,with seven others, broke jail and escaped. Stuart
was tried by the district court, found guilty, and
sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment. All the
money in his possession was taken from him and given
to Jansen.

•I I

Before the sentence of the court was executed,
however, Stuart was taken to Mary svi lie and there
arraigned for the murder of Moore, the sheriff. At
this trial the testimony as to Stuart's identity was
conflictincj. There was no doubt as to Jim Stuart
being the murderer of jMoore, but while n any wit-
nesses for the prosecutic i positively identified the
prisoner by a dozen pr >iinent features, yet there
were others who as posi 'ely asserted that he was
not the man.

I herewith give what o i of the attorneys in the
case at Marysville says al >ut it:

"Witnesses for the prosecution were generally bold and entirely positive;
but the witnesses for the prisoner, with the exception of .ludge Stidger .and
B. F. Washington, appeared to feel uneasy, and often hesitated m their tcsti-

THE attouni:y'.s iii:maui;s.

XfA

mony. Somo thrco or four witnoiiscM tnHtitii-il that tlu-y lin'l workoil with .Tim
Stiiurt. lit FdHttT iSiir, iiixl iuiil Itiiowii iiini w.ll iH^fiirc Im went tlu'ir. Tht-y
IiimI catc'ii witli iiiiii lit tlu* Hiiint' tiiiic often, and Imd playt'il viwiU witli liiin ;
iiml one or two tentilied tliey had Hlei)t witli him. 'I'liey teMtilied that Jim
Stiiurt wufl of thu Hunio iiei^iit uh tiio prisoner; tiiat lie liad eurly iiiiir, like
hint; that he wutt Hlightly Imld on the top of the head, like him; that hiit
actioiiH were like Inn —the court havin{^ made tlie prisoner Htiind up neveral
timuH HO that the witnesseH coiihl Hce him Ixtter than when sittinj,'; that liis
voice and accent were the Hiimo, iK'inn KngliMh ; that the color of the eyes and
hair were the same ; and tliat Jim Stuart had a Htitl' middle finger on the ri;^ht
hand, and n ring of Indian-ink rouml one of his tingers,and marks of Indian-ink
lietwecn each thund>and forellnger; and further, that Jim Stuart had a rather
long Hear on his right chei^k. 'J'iio jury then examined tlie hands of tiie i>ri«-
oiier, ami there was found a ring of Ind<an-ink on one of his fingers, several
ligures or spots of the siinio ink between the tliumli and forefinger of eacli
hand; and the right middle linger was notstifl', hut had had a felon under tlie
nail of the correspomling finger o'' the other liaiu'., >v'liicli hatl given it a sliort
but stubby appeurajice, lieavier at the end than elsewhere, the nail of tlie
linger being broad ami thick, and lieiiding inward over the end of the finger.
Tliis was startling to the defence, indeed. It remained now to Hee if the
I)risoncr had a scar on thu right side of the face. Plis face could nut be satis-
factorily examined, as it was alniost completely covered with a short growtii
of hair. The court ordered the pri.ioner to be sliaved before being brought
into court next morning, and on lieiiig examined a scar about the length of
the one described by tlie witnesses was found, commencing on tlio edge of the
jaw on the right side ond running down the neck. The witnesses now seemed
coiilident, an<l said that tliey had no doubt that the prisoner was Jim Stuart.
(Ju a cross-examination they said, in a positive and unhesitating manner, that
it was not possible that they could be mistaken in their opinion that tlie
piisoiier was Jim Stuart. Colonel Prentiss swore positively that the prisDiier
was Jim Stuart, and that he could not possibly be mistaken. Some four or
five witnesses swore positively as to the identity of the prisoner, and that he
was Jim Stuart l)oyoud a question; each giving some one or more new rcasou.s
for his belief. No witness on the side of the prosecution would admit a proba-
bility that lie could bo mistaken in the prisoner; that he certainly was .Jim
Stuart! On the side of the defence, Ju<lge Stidger swore positively that tiio
prisoner at the bar wiw not Jiiu Stuart ; that there was a strong rcscmbbince
between Jim Stuart and this man, but that Jim Stuart was at least two inches
t'lller than the prisoner; that their eyes were <litferent in color; that the ex-
l>rc.ssion of the eyes of the two men was diH'erent; tliat Jim Stuart was mucii
iiuicker in his motions than the prisoner ; Lnat Jim Stuart's motions were vci-y
uncommon, being as quick as those of a wildcat; that he had always head
erect, much more so than the prisoner, and that the real Jim Stuart wan
straighter in his personal formation, and had a different complexion. Tiiis
witness testified that Jim Stuart was often arraigned before him as a judge at
]''oster Bar, and that his recollection of him from this and other facts was
clear and distinct. Stidger also testified that Jim Stuart had a stiff' middle
linger, but uot such a one as the prisoner had. B. F. Washington, who waa

193

THE BURDUE-STUART AFFAIR.

I !;

at the time recorder of Sacramento City, testified that he knev Jim .Stuart
from the fact of his bemg a notorious character in that city, and from the
fact that he had often been brought before him on different charges. Mr
Washington said that the prisoner at the bar was not Jim Stuart ; that there
■was some resemblance, but they were to his eye quite different men; that
Jim Stuart was an inch and a half or two inches taller tlian the prisoner.
Otlier witnesses for the defence testified to about the same facts, but they
seemed to be uneasy, in some trepidation, and acted in a manner most pro-
^'oking to the defence. One witness on belialf of tlie prosecution, a Mr
Thompson, testified that the prisoner, about the date of the alleged murder,
came into a camp on Slate Range, in said county of Yuba, on horseback, and
seemed to have plenty of money, and was betting with the boys on a string-
game which he played very skilfully. That he had a conversation with the
prisoner in the jail, and that the prisoner admitted that he was at Slate Range
at the time mentioned, but denied that he was Jim Stuart. "

From the report f the trial at Marysville we are
informed that when the case was committed to the
jury, eight were for conviction and four for acquittal,
l^^inally the jury, after deliberating two days and one
night, agreed on a verdict of guilty. While the
verdict was being announced the prisoner did not
manifest the least trepidation or excitement. An eye-
witness says : " I could not notice the least change of
a muscle in his face, and I must say that the appear-
ance of his face was far from being that of a hardened
villain listening to the fiat deciding his fate, for his
countenance was mild, calm, and serene."

When his counsel visited the unfortunate man in
his cell two hours afterward, he clenched his hands,
and raising them toward heaven reiterated his solemn
protestation of innocence. He further said that if he
should be offered a million of dollars and bis liberty
he could not tell where Mr Jansen's store was in San
Francisco. He spoke of his narrow escape from hang-
ing at his previous trial; his friends were afraid to
stand by him, as their allegiance would subject them
to abuse and maltreatment as men of Sydney. Aban-
doned by his comrades, cursed and hated by those who
believed him a criminal, life was no longer endurable,
and he was willing to die. His only request was that
letters shoulc. be written to his poor wife in Sydney

BURDUE'S LETTER.

107

and his father in England, informing them of his ill-
fate and of his innocence.

The following letter, given verbatim, written im-
mediately after his trial at Marj-sville, and while
under condemnation of death, displays more vividly
than can any words of mine this strange freak of
justice:

Marysville Jail, July 4, ISol.
To John Goff—'D'RXR Sir: I have had a trial which lasted five or six days,
and the jury was twenty-four hours in deciding my fate; and had they not
had a prejudice against the country I came from it might have turned out
dilFerent, but as it was they found mc guilty, and my sentence is death. The
law allows me thirty days before the execution is put into efiect. I forgot to
say, though I was found guilty, the jury re-marked that they had doubts upon
their minds; but the judge said that this doubt would assist me very little.
I had more evidence in favor than against; in fact I had the judges from
Sacramento, who tried tliis said Stuart several times, also the policeman wlio
took Stuart into custody; they V)oth swore positively that I was not Stuart.
And beside these men, T had from lifteen to twenty more who knew Stuart
well, and they also swore positively that I was not Stuart; and moreover all
of these persons were strangers to me. The evidence here went to show and
prove that Stuart was two and a Iialf inches taller than me. The policeman who
first took me in charge for Stuart never appeared against me. Had 1 of liad
Mrs Strytum, the landlord of the house I kept, and Mrs Morris, and yourself,
it might have turned the case in my favor, as this nmrder was perpetrated on
the 7th of December, and you are well aware that I was in San Francisco a
long time before and a long time aft^r. I have since been informed that
no matter what evidence I have, the prejudice is so great against the people
that come from Sydney that Lud I of had these witnesses I have named it
would of been no use. Mrs Eliott was hoie to prov ^ that I came in the same
ship with her from Sydney, and it so happened that there was a witness also
here to prove that this same Stuart came in steam-vessel from Panama with
him, in same month as I came from ■"- ydney. He also swore to Stuart's height,
as being much taller. There was several parties from Foster Bar, who
arrested Stuart for a robbery he Jid there; they also swore I was not Stuart,
but all of no use; and one of these persons wivs the judge who tried Stuart on
Foster IJar twice, and worked in the same company. Fletcher and Benson
I got subpoenas for. but they cou'd not bo found. Henry Davies called upon
mo, and promised to stay to my trial, but on account of its being put off for
a few days he left and I have not seen him since. Understand me, I don't
mean to say that I had no evidence against me, because I had many that
swore I was Stuart; but most or all of these persons only knew Stuart sligh tly,
where tliose that swore I was not liim, all said they knew him wpII. I ha\'e
no more to say at present touching the case. I nmst now ask you as a very
great favor to come up and see me as soon i.s possible, as I cannot say liow
soon I may be launched into eternity, innocent. When you come up, please

108

THE BURDUE-STUART AFFAIR.

ill

iii

bring any letters you may have for me. My dear Sir, when I ask you this
favor, I ask you not to delay, as it will be the last time you will be able to
see mc, and for God's sake, and the respect you have for me, don't fail, as I
have a deal to say respecting my poor wife and friends 1 have left behind.

I can assure you it is vei-y hard to be placed in this position, but at the
same time I keep up my spirits as well as I can. I now say agaui, in the
name of God do not neglect me, but if possible come up as soon as you re-
ceive this.

Give my respects to all my friends in San Francisco, and receive the same
yourself, from

Yours truly, but very unfortunate,

TlIOS. BtTRDUE.

P. S. — I have not forgot the day I entered your house after being at the
mines for five months working hard, and dirty as miners are, and your boy
John, which is only three or four years, should recognize me.

Hear now the sequel, and note the moral. Just
before the day arrived on which lie was to have been
sentenced, it was ascertained that this Stuart was not
Stuart at all. He over whom all this temper had
been spent was Thomas Burdue, an innocent manl
He had never committed murder, had never assaulted
Jansen, and every word of the story he had told on
his arrest was true!

These facts were ascertained by the men who ere
this had formed themselves at San Francisco into a
Committee of Vigilance, as we shall presently see, and
who rescued the unfortunate man from a felon's death
on the eve of execution by the arrest of the true
Stuart, to whom Burdue bore a striking resemblance.
His likeness in form and feature to a villain was to
him a Nessus shirt of misfortune.

Says the attorney before quoted, on seeing the real
Stuart subsequently at the rooms of the San Fran-
cisco Vigilance Committee: "If ever I saw a stronger
resemblance between two men in my life,l do not recol-
lect it. But I soon noticed the distinctive differences,
so minutely described in the testimony of Stidger and
Washington. The real Jim Stuart who stood before
me was at least two inches higher than the prisoner
in Yuba county. The middle finger was the same as
has been stated by witnesses, quite stiff, and his hands

SINGULAR CIRCUMSTANCES.

190

much longer and more aristocratically shaped than
the hands of the other. His actions were exactly
those that Stidger had described, and at the least
motion of any one present, his eyes, head, or body
would move with the rapidity of lightning!"

Imagine tbo feelings of this man under his strange
and varied experiences; lying incarcerated through
months of long nights and wearisome days, pondering
on the present and wondering what would come
next; sitting in the prisoners' dock listening to those
who, one after another, came forward and fastened on
him crimes from the bare mention of which his soul
shrank, until he began to question his own sanity and
identity. Now he lay chained in a dungeon; now,
under the grim shadow of justice, surrounded by eyes
staring curses on him, ho listened to evidence and
arguments no more appliciible to him than to the
judge himself; and now he found himself the centre
of an infuriated populace, eager to shoot, hang, or with
their fingers to tear him in pieces, when, if they but
kne'w the simple truth, they would sooner point their
weapons against their own breast. The jaundiced eye
sees all things yellow. While the prisoner was on
trial, and strong evidence was brought against him,
the people saw guilt stamped on his face; when he
was proved innocent, the face shone in open honesty.

Immediately the Committee of Vigilance had found
the true James Stuart, and had rescued from the jaws
of death the man who been taken for him, Thomas
Burdue was brought to San Francisco, and the amplest
amends possible were made liim. He was pardoned by
the governor for crimes which he liad never connnitted.
Mr Jansen not only refunded the money taken from
him, but supplemented it by a hberal addition. A ]uib-
lio subscription was started, wliich resulted in substan-
tial aid. Thus Thomas Burdue became a hero, and
was lifted up — but not so high as the scaffold.

Before the legislature of 1853 a memorial was pre-
sented on behalf of Thomas Burdue, asking for four

200

THE BURDUE-STUART AFFAIR.

1'
I

\ Sr>

i 1!

(

thousand dollars, in view of the suffering and igno-
minies of a nine months' unj ust imprisonment. Besides
contractiniif disease and underjjoinof the horrors of the
death sentence for another's crime, his entire means
and all he could borrow from his friends, amounting
to nearly the sum asked, had been expended in pro-
curing necessary counsel and witnesses, in consequence
of which his wife and children were reduced to beg-
gary. The memorial was referred to the judiciary
committee, of which J. W. Ralston was chairman.
The following lucid and logical reply was made: "To
grant the prayer of the petitioner would establish a
precedent which, if carried out in all cases of the kind,
would more than exhaust the entire revenue of the
state. We know of no legislative precedent for such
appropriation. The most that has been done was to
refund fines illegally collected from innocent parties,
leaving them responsible for their own expenses. In
society it too often happens that the innocent are
wrongfully accused of crime. This is their misfor-
tune, and government has no power to relieve them.
It is a part of the price each individual may be called
on to pay for the protection which the laws give. He
should rejoice that the laws have afforded that pro-
tection to him when wrongfully accused, rather than
seek remuneration for his expenses from the govern-
ment whose justice has protected him from igno-
minious death." That is to say, stripped of verbiage.
To correct the errors of law would cost more than
all the expenses of government combined. We have
never known a legislature to right a wrong done by
the law to a citizen, therefore we will not. Prosecu-
tion may be the price of protection; and fortunate is
lie who is not done to death by laws established to
save his life!

CHAPTER XIII.

Icu-

ORGANIZATION OF THE SAN FRANCISCO COMMITTEE OP
VIGILANCE OF 1851.

Tho gods
Grow angry with your juitience ; 'tia their care,
And must be youi-a, that guilty men escape not:
As crimes do grow, justice should rouse itself.

Ben Jonson.

Crime was emboldened rather than intimidated by
recent affairs. While the Burdue trial was in j^rog-
ress, the drug-store of Bache and Grotjan, corner
of Washington street and Portsmouth Square, wa^
entered and robbed; a murder was committed at El
Rincon; on Prospect Hill a woman was robbed of
live hundred dollars and two gold chains. Two men
making their round of pillage were caught with
articles taken from the stores of Kettell, Mahony,
and Company, and Middleton and Hood ; one of them
was severely punished by the people and tho other
escaped. At the time and thereafter, both in the city
and country, slung -shots, knives, and pistols were
employed more liberally than ever.

Rascality assumed the heroic. Aside from the
seductive charm of illicit gain was it not a grand
thing to be the central figure of such an assemblage as
that of the before-mentioned Sunday in February?
For less than this men toil in their life-long wearisome
ascent, demagogues weave their web of state-craft,
and soldiers fight their battles. When men are so
eager by hook or crook to attract the notice of the
world, may not the chivalrous and accomplished villain
achieve renown after his own fashion?

(201)

202

COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE OF 1851.

After all, the difference between war-butcheries
and highway-butcheries is more ideal than real. War
is the standing irony of humane justice Poets call
this bloody display of passion lovelier than love, wiser
than .v'sdom, holier than religion. So burns in their
heart the ilr-^ of patriotism that for opinion's sake
they lay their countr*y in ashes, and for the love of
truth resort to killin^j. Wlitt is truth? May men
kill for pride and vain-glory ai\d not for bread? To
fight for opinion and call it fighting for truth; to war
against infallibility while clr. lining to be infallible;
striinge infatuation! As though immutable truth,
which is as firm as the Creator's throne, should need
the puny oflibrts of man to establish it, and that the
killing of one another shovdd so establish it! Verily
there have been in the fermentations of peoples more
anomalous absurdities, more reasonless killings, than
would be the achievements of villainy for fame !

Happily for individuals society puts the veto on
private slaughter ; happy will it be for mankind when
nations eschew killing; happy will it be for morals
when no longer single murders alone are infamous,
and only wholesale slaughter honorable. Here in
California at this time was work enough to do at all
events, and that in the direction pointed out by co.-
science fashioned by custom. Hundreds of murderers
M'alked from their victims unmolested, escaped to new
killing. What then? Shall these go unpunished?
Does not the bird Hameh, formed in Arabian my-
thology from the brain-blood of the slaughtered victim,
cry Iskoonc! give me to drink vengeance! and so
pursue the guilty to the end of his career?

Following the excitement attending the Jansen
outrage, as I have said, matters became rapidly worse
and worse. Nothing so stimulates wrong -doing as
attempting punishment and failing. In the war of
good against evil defeat is fatal. One villainous suc-
cess draws into its trail a hundred new recruits. For

IXCREASE OF CRIJIE.

203

a year previous to midsummer, 1851, again and again
the public press called on the people to unite and
hang the criminals. Round the sand-hills and in the
hollows, as from the circling hell of Dante, there
seemed to rise a silent wail of woe. The stench of
natures maledict, as from the tomb of misfortune,
floated over the sand-waste and filled to suffocation
the nostrils of plodding virtue.

Robberies and rascalities of every kind were of daily
occurrence ; quiet citizens were knocked down in going
to and from their business, and it was unsafe for one
to trust one's self out after dark without a cocked
pistol in the hand. The criminal catalogue of a week's
or a month's duration would be startling. On the 3d
of June occurred the Benjamin Lewis affair before
mentioned. Twice his indictment by the grand jury
was quashed by Judge Parsons on some technical
ground, and the prisoner held for another future
spasm of justice. The same night a jewelry store on
Clay street was feloniously entered; also the shop of
]Mr Robbins, on Broadway, near Powell street. The
building on the south-west corner of Kearny and
California streets was fired the 5th, but the flames
were extinguislie«l before spreading. Sunday night,
the 8tli of June, the California-street wharf was fired.
At the Blue Devil saloon on Jackson street there
was a beautiful stabbing affray the 9th. The same
nisjht the house of the Reverend Prevaux was en-
tered. Unhallowed meanness 1 Twenty culprits on an
average now graced the recorder's levee every morning.
The 12th of June Charles Hudson was knocked down
and robbed of five hundred and twenty dollars in Cab
alley. Saturday, the 14th, one Whitzcr was stabbed
by Albert C. Burnoy at a dance-house on Pacific
street, near Dupont. Next day, Sunday, the cry
of murder was raised on Virginia street, and Mr
and Mrs Yates were taken in charge in consequence.
At a place then rejoicing in the strongly suggestive
name of Hog Valley a man was knocked senseless

2D4

COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE OF 1851.

If'

li 'i

:i4

and robbed on tlie 1 7th. A fire, the supposed work
of an incendiary, was discovered on the 18th under
a building in the rear of Jones' Hotel.

The 22d of June occurred the seventh great con-
flagration, involving the loss of six lives and about
two millions ol property. Nearly one fourth of th(^
city was laid in ashes. After careful investigation the
people were satisfied that it was the work of an in-
cendiary. The fire originated in the dwelling of !Mr
Delessert. At the time there was neither fire nor
servant in the house. The people were out in fall
force, fighting the flames and guarding property.
While the flames were raging, the burglary of a
jewelry store on Merchant street was attempted.
That same evening N. L. Pollock was shot dead by
Samuel Gallagher. A Mexican named Juan, caught
stealing at this fire, was tried and publicly whipped
by the people.

A nolle i^roseqid was entered by the court of sessions
the 2Gth of Juno in the case of Charles Duanc, the
prosecuting attorney stating that the witnesses for
the prosecution could not bo for.nd. It was a current
practice among the fraternify, that of continuing a
case until the witnesses were scattered. Two individ-
uals, Graham and Lemon, at a loss to know whether,
even in their own estimation, they were gentlemen,
indulged in some general shooting on Kearny street,
near the plaza, on the evening of the 30th. Unfortu-
nately neither was killed, though the bodies of the
by-standers entertained a number of their bullets.

These are scarcely a moiety of the oflfences com-
mitted during the month of June; include the petty
crimes and misdemeanors, and the list would be in
creased tenfold.

Before the month opened, it was clearly apparent
that the time was fast approaching when the indigna-
tion of the people must burst its fetters; the enemies
of peace and honest living had filled their cup of in-

NIGHT PATROL.

205

iquity to overflow inj:^. Patience had become puerility.
The question was no longer whether it was rijjjht ior
the people to take law into their own hands and ex-
ecute justice, but whether the virtuous and orderly
element in the community should have any existence
at all. Over and over again the legal machinery tluu
in operation was proved utterly hiadequate to tiie
suppression of crime; wickedness grew bolder and
more rampant every day, until the simple proposition
was, Shall the substance of the right-minded and
industrious be forever taken to feed villainy? Then
it was that a secret committee of men determineil
to put on armor and stand ready, the self-constituted
exponents and executives of order and of law, sprung
as it were from tlie ground.

The idea of organizing did not originate wholly with
any one man or at any one time. As in every normal
evolution, the development w^as the offspring of ne-
cessity. A thousand minds were pregnant with the
thought that something must be done. Citizens talked
together of it, and every new outrage added force to
expression. The great law of self- protection, far
mightier than written law, of its own subtle strength
attracted and massed the isolated porticles of so-
ciety. Although it was a clear case of spontaneous
combustion, there was yet an immediate agent. In
a thousand places the flame of reform was ready to
burst out; the first bursting was the beginning.

There had been organized late in February or early
in March, among the merchants, a night patrol, of
which F. W. Macondray was captain. Every man
who had property to protect was invited to join the
company, and contribute his proportion of time and
money for the benefit of all. There were about one
hundred members, who were assigned to different dis-
tricts, and twelve of them were on duty four times a
month, serving eight hours out of the twentv-four.
Often during their meetings they discussed the ne-
cessity of organizing as a popular tribunal and as-

(

I i

i i

i|;

S06

COilMITTEE OF VIGILANCE OF 1831.

suniing arbitrary powers. It was a consummation,
howcvor, to be deplored, and therefore to be post-
poned as long as possible. Of the band was George
E. Schenck, who claims this as the origin of the
A^igilance Committee; others, however, put in coun-
ter claims. The truth is, as I have said, this organ-
izing for mutual safety was the act of many, who
thus as it were threw up their arms involuntarily to
v/ard off the blow aimed at society by confederated
crime.

In what was then known as Happy Valley, where
now is First street, near Mission, in the spring of
1851 lived James Neall, a highly respected eiti:^on
and prominent merchant. George Cakes, of the firm
of Endicott, Green, and Oakes, was his neighbor.
Meeting on Sunday afternoon, the 8th of June, their
conversation turned on what was uppermost in the
minds of both — the insecurity of affairs, and the
necessity of active measures. Calm, clear-headed,
practical men, both of them, they determined at once
and together to call on ]\Ir Bran nan, the ruling spirit
and tacitly acknowledged leader of the movement of
18.51, and consult with him on the subject. They
found Mr Brannan seated in his office, and near him
at the desk Mr Wardwcll, his clerk. Mr Brannan
listened as one to whom such words were welcome.
As the fire licks I'ovingly new fuel, so the flame
already blazing in his breast received the sentiments
poured into it by his visitors. After short discussion
it was suggested that each then present should give
Mr Wardwell the names of such citizens as were
known to be in sympathy with good order, and whose
discretion could be relied upon, inviting them to meet
at twelve o'clock at noon the next day, Monday, the
9th, at the California Engine House, situated at the
junction of Market and Bush streets, opposite the
Oriental Hotel. Certain persons in the several dis-
tricts of the city were requested to organize each a

THE TERM VIGILANCE COMMITTEE.

207

local committee, of which he should act as chair-
man, ami the duty of these cominittees sliould be
to notify their trustworthy neighbors, and invite
them to be present at the time and place above
mentioned.

In pursuance of that action there was a large
gathcrmg at the engine-house the following noon,
and the room was crowded. The evils of the times
were discussed, and views interchanged as to the
proper remedy. The meeting finally adjourned to
assemble that night at Mr Brannan's rooms, for
the purpose of organizing and defining a course of
action.

Unaware of the steps which had thus far been
taken, Mr A. Delano wrote two notices in the after-
noon of Tuesday, the 10th, calling a meeting to be
held next day at three o'clock on the plaza, and
handed them in at the offices of the A/ta California
and Courier. He then drew up articles of associ-
ation, which he called a 'Committee of Safety;' but
learning from Mr Brannan Wednesday morning that
an organization had already been effected, he saw
that the articles which he had prepared were not
needed.

Singularly contradictory were many of the state-
ments given me by the actors themselves. I have
been told repeatedly by those who joined the asso-
ciation on the 10th or the 11th of June that the
Jenkins robbery, hereafter to be mentioned, was the
act which called the organization into being, when in
fact the origin of associating dated from the Sunday
previous, and sprang immediately from the com-
mon conversation and resolution of the two citizens
of Happy Valley. Thick black clouds, portentous of
outbreak, had hung for weeks and months over the
city; but the walk of Neall and Oakes to Brannan's
office was the first white streak indicative of imme-
diate atmospheric purification.

The origin of the term vigilance committee was

208

COMMITTEE OP VIGILANCE OP 1851.

spontaneous. In the meeting of ]Mon<lay ni<;'ht tlio
question arose how the or«jfanization should be <lesij^-
nated. One suggested that they shouhl cull them-
selves the ' Regulators,' from their determination to
scrutinize and regulate the administration of justice,
and so diminish crime. But the word Kogulators
smacked too strongly of the Hounds epoch; it was
too significant of a purpose and policy directly at vari-
ance with those of the new organization, and hence
was not seriously entertained. * Secret Committee '
did not suit for obvious reasons. Next was proposed
' Committee of Safety,' or ' Committee of Public
Safety,' as conveying the idea of protection which the
association sought to throw round every good citizen.
This name found more supporters. But meanwhile
the term 'Committee of Vigilance' having been sug-
gested, it took precedence at once, embodying as it
does the sentiment of watchfulness with those of cir-
cumspection, care, and protection. Hence this name
was unanimously adopted, and as the expression of a
unique human association shall so stand to the end of
time.

At the meeting of Monday night there were pres-
ent those who fully realized the responsibility and
importance of the step about to be taken. Their
seeming duty lay seemingly counter to the regular
course of law. Plainly, they proposed to break the
law, and in so doing lay themselves open to punish-
ment by the law. In the eyes of the law they were
about to become oifenders of as deep «, dye as any
they proposed to punish, though from very different
motives.

But there were also present young and inex-
perienced men, who did not know what they were
about to do; and sage tutor to these was the whilom
colonel commanding the New York volunteers, which
company, as before stated, when disbanded furnished
many of the ruffians then infesting the city. These
mettlesome innocents the mettlesome old colonel set

SAMUEL ERAXNAN.

soo

about to instruct. It .suited well the eternal fitness
of tliinfjs, that lie wlu> had brought hither New
York's vagabonds .should now liang tliem. Feehngly
lie .spoke of his fornier associates, calhng to mind past
dangers and privations in common shared; but re-
called to things present, stern duty swelled the brea^^.t
well buttonetl beneath an army coat, and the severest
of military airs wreathed the features of the ire-
illuminated face.

There were those both at this and at subsequent
meetings who were more ready with their tongue
than with their sword. Upon this occasion the
doughty colonel concludes an address brimful of
nervous energy with these words: "And mind you,
let there be no skulking! Let there be no skulking
now!" But when the bell summoned to actual danj^er
and responsibility, and the more timid looked for their
brave commander, he was nowhere to be found;
though there was made diligent search, even to the
sending to his house for him, he failed to ]iut in an
appearance. Then certain profane youth, tilled with
merry contempt, took from a white fowl its whitest
feather, and carefully inclosing it in an envelope, ad-
dressed and sent it to the brave talker.

Very different was the conduct on this occasion
of Mr Brannan, to whom the highest praise is due.
Peculiar as he was in some respects, I cannot but
icijard his connection with the first Vigilance Com-
niittee as the brightest epoch of his eventful life; and
so long as society holrls its course in San Francisco
his name should be held in honored and grateful ro-
luembrance. With the most cheerful recklessness he
threw his life and wealth into the scale; anything
and everything he possessed was at the disposal of
the committee free of any charge.

The avowed object of the association was to vigil-
antly watch and pursue the outlaws that infested the
<'ity, and bring them to justice, through the regularly
constituted courts, if that could be; by a more sum-

Pop. TniB., Vol.. I. 14

810

COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE OF 1851.

niary and direct process, if must be. Each member
])ledged his sacred honor, hifc fortune, and his hfe, for
the protection of his fellow members, for the protec-
tion of the lives and property of the citizens of the
community, and for purging the city of bad characters
\vho were making tliemselvcs odious in it.

An informal instrument was drawn up at this
meeting, which signified the general purpose and
course of action. This was signed by those preis-
ent. Inviolable secrecy was laid on every member;
unity and good faith, becoming common interests
and manly honor, should characterize all their act:"^.
Every member should act the part of city monitor;
in case of disturbance members of the society should
be summoned, and each subscriber promised to appear
when called, and to perform service when needed.

A partial organization only was effected on Mon-
day, but next night arrangements were perfected and
future action determined. Then and there they re-
S(jlved to purge the city of crime at the hazard of their
lives and fortunes. Watches must be set, patrols
established, and scouts sent out; evil-doers were to
be hunted, and when caught, tried, fairly, consci-
entiously, deliberately, and if guilty punished im-
mediately. This was tlie simple plan, the code of
common-sense, cstnblished by these men of practical
determination. There was to bo no friction of un-
necessary agencies in their machinery; they know
when a vagabond deserved banishment or hanging,
and they knew how to banish and hang; and this
was enouijh.

The protocol of the constitution is dated the 8th of
June, at v«hich time it was instituted and put into
general effect. In the book of signers it is dated tlu
i)th of June, at which time it was finally adopted and
signed. To the constitution S. E. Woodworth is the
first signature; S. Brannan, the second; E. Gorhani,
the third; Frod'k A. Woodworth, the fourth; Geo. J.
Oakes, the fifth; and so on.

ORGANIZATION.

Following are the constitution and by-laws as
adopted :

CONSTITUTION, 9th JUNE, 1851.

" WnEREAS, It has iKcomc apparent to the citizens of San Francisco that
there is no security for life and property, either under the regulations of bo.
ciety as it at present exists, or under the laws as now administered ; therefore,
the citizens whoa i names arc hereunto attached do unite themselves into
an association for the maintenance of the peace and good order of society, and
the preservation of the lives and property of the citizens of Saa Franciaco,
and do bind ourselves, oach unto the other, to do and perform every lawful
act for the maintenance of law and order, and to sustain the laws when faitli.
fully and properly administered ; but we arc determined that no thief, burghir,
incendiary, or assassin shall escape ijunishment, either by the quibbles of tlie
law, the insecurity of prisons, the carelessness or corruption of the police, or
a laxity of those who pretend to administer justice. And to secure the objects
of this association we do hereby agree ; First, That the name and style of tho
association shall be the Committee of '''igilance, for tho protection of tlic citi-
zens and residents of the city of San iVancisco. Secondly, That there shall
be a room selected for the meetuigs and deliberations of the committee, ;.t
w'.iich there shall be some one or more members of the committee, appointed
for that purpose, in constant attendance, at all hours of tlie day and night, to
receive the report of any member of the association, or of any other person or
persons whatsoever, of any act of violence done to the person or i)roperty of
any citizen of San Francisco; and if, in the judgment of the member or mcni-
lijrs of the committee present, it be audi an act as justifies the iuterferenco
oi" tliis committee, either in aiding in the execution of tho laws or the promjit
and summary punishment of the olFender, the committee shall be at once a.s-
fsenibled for the purpose of taking such action as a majority of the committeu
v.hon assembled shall determine upon. Thirdly, That it shall be the duty of
any member or members of the committco on duty at the committee room,
whenever a general assemblage of tlie coniinitt( >' is deenii d necessary, to
cause a call to be made by two strokes upon a b('li ".vliich shall be repeatt'd
with a pause of one minute between each alarm; tho ularm to be struck until
ordered stopped. Fourthly, That when the comniitteo have assembled f.jr
action tho decision of a majority present shall l)e binding upon the whole
ciinimittee; and that those members of the commit :oe wlioso names are here-
unto iittaclied do pledge their honor, and hereby bind them..'lves, to defend
mill sustain each other in carrying out the determined action of this com
iiiittee, at the hazard of their lives and their fortunes. Fifthly, That there
■shall bo chosen monthly a president, secretjiry, and treasurer; and it shall be
tlie <luty of the secrctr . detail tho members required to be in daily atteiul-
iuice at tlio committee room. A sergcant-at-arms shall be appointed, whose
<hity it shall bo to notify such meml>ei3 of their detail for duty. The scrgean; •
iit-anns shall reside at and be in constant attendance at the committee ir)oni.
TliLre shall be a standing committee of liuance and qualitkation, consisting oi
li\ e each, and no peraoa shall be admitted a r.icmbcr of this association unks..

3 ail

:i2

COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE OF IS.'!.

lie be a respectable citizen, and approved of by the committee on qualiScation
before admission. "

BY-LAWS.

"WiiEnEAS, The citizens of San Francisco, convinced that there exists
within these limits a l>and of robbers and incendiaries, who have several times
l)urned and attempted to Inim their city, who nightly attack their persons
and ])rea' into their buildings, destroy their quiet, jeopardize their lives and
property, and generally disturb the natural order of society; and whereas,
many of those taken by the police have succeeded in escaping from their
prisons by carelessness, by connivance, or from want of proper means or force
to secure their safe confinement; therefore, be it

" liCHolved, That the citizens of this place be made aware that the Com-
mittee of Vigilance will be ever ready to receive information as to the where-
abouts of any disorderly or suspicious person, or persons, as well as the per-
sons themselves, when suspected of crime. That as it is the conviction of a
large portion of our citizens that there exists in this city a nucleus of convicts
and disorderly persons, round which cluster tliose who have so seriously dis-
turbed tlie peace and aflfccted the best interests of our city, such as are known
to the police of the city, or to members of the Committee of Vigilance, as
f'jlons, by conduct or association, bo notified to leave this port within five
days from this date; and at the expiration of wliich time they shall be com-
jH'Ued to depart, if they have not done so voluntarily within the time specified.

" RcKnlvfd, That a safety committee of thirty persons be appointed, whose
8.-.icred duty it shall be to visit every vessel arriving with notorious or suspicious
characters on board ; and unless they can present to said committee evidence
of good character and honesty, they shall be re-shipped to the places from
whence they came, and not to be permitted to pollute our soil.

' ' l)VSolvv(l, That all gootl citizens be invited to join and assist the Committee
of Vigilance in carrying out the above measures, so necessary for the perfect
restoration of the peace, safety, and good order of our community."

Signed to this were about two hundred names. The
documents were then given to the pubhc journals for
pubhcation, with the tbllowing remarks by the com-
mittee :

" The above, a portion of the Committee of Vigilance lately established in
the city for the preservation of order, punishment of vice, and for the pur-
l)ose of meting out that justice so long withheld from criminals, unwilling,'
that the names of a few of their associates should 1)0 selected by the Coroner's
Jury as the principal actors in the trial and execution of Jenkins, inform tlie
public that they with all the memliers f'f the eonmiittee are equally re-
sponsible for the first act of justice that has been dealt to a criminal .':i Sun
Francisco since California became a state of our Union. Our fellow-citizens,
remembering the escape of Withers, Daniels, and Adams, of Stuart, Wildred,
luid Watkins, and tho tardy manner in which tlie incendiary Lewis is boinL;
brought to justice, will see the necesaity of the stringent measures we Imvo
adopted. "

SOME REGULATIONS.

213

This publication also informed those frictuUy to clic
cause that the Committee of Vifjilance had nothinfj
secret in their proceedings but such matters as would
tend to defeat the object for which they were asso-
ciated. After arranging for concert of action, the
absence of which had been so severely felt during the
I3urdue-Stuart affair; after establishing a watchword
and a signal to be used to call members to the ren-
dezvous, which was three taps — it had been two taps
before — on the California Fire Company's bell, and de-
tailing officers for immediate duty, enrolling a number
(.f IK ubers, all among the most respectable and well
!.j)c' • "itizens, and after disposing of other needed
1)1! sin- .is, the committee adjourned for the evening.
1 say they adjourned, but the;^ did not disperse. The
first great tragedy was to be enacted that night.
Before these associates should sleep, their promises
nmst be sealed in blood.

CHAPTER XIV.

BEHIND THE SCENES.

So do the wiL.' ■ ■[ +'mnder cleanse the air,
So working b^e • and purge the wine;

So lopp'd and prnn .ees do flourish fair,
So doth the tire I.: dros^jy gold rcline.

(Spe/wer.

Throughout my examination of the subject of
popular tribunals it has been my constant purpose to
bring to light as much as possible the inner workings
of the San Francisco Cominittoe of Vigilance, as that
organization must ever be the u'rand and central fiijure
in all such study. All that has hitherto been made
public, all that has hitherto been known of it, is what
was outwardly visible at the time. The institution
was known only by its results. It was public -j ap-
parent that such an association existed, and the watch-
ful observer could easily ascertain where its members
met. The people at large could see when an arrest
was made; in the event of exile or execution thev
could see offenders shipped hence or hanged. But
tliis was all. Of what was done within the walls; of
the o^^ganization as such, its color, calibre, sentiment,
purpose, and secret action, they knew absolutely
nothing. Among the members themselves, the riglit
hand knew not what the left hand did. Members ot'
the general committee knew as little about the de-
liberations and actions of the executive committee
as those who were not members of the Vigilance
Committee at all.

The history of the movement, I clearly appre-
hended, could not be fully written without careful

(214)

RETICEXCE OF MEMBERS.

inquiry into what was, of all things connected with
it, the most closely guarded. For a long time I was
j^eremptorily refused admission behind the scenes;
for years the only answers I received to my constant
importunities, to my arguments as to what I conceived
to be their duty, their obligations to the world, in the
matter were these: We do not wish to revive the
])ast, melancholy as it is with dismal memories. We
have no ambition to figure in history. In our action
we only followed what we conceived to be our duty ;
our conscience to-day app'oves; under like circum-
stances we should do the sau.^; but there are those
whose opinions are worthy of as much consideration
as ours who differ with us, and we do not care to
discuss the question. Action was our logic, and tlio
iruit of our deeds the end of the argument. We will
not, we dare not say more.

Nor was tliis an unnecessary precaution. In fact,
if not so morally, those associates were legally out-
laws. In the eyes of their government they were
conspirators and murderers, and tliey could not be
officially regarded as anything else. By these acts
which tliey deemed necessary and righteous they laid
themselves open to prosecution, which miglit result
in fines, imprisonment, or even death. Should the
law d'.cline to act against public sentiment, sliould it
refuse to exercise in its strict letter its power against
its loyalist lovers, and visit with puiusliment the best
citizens of the comuKJUwealth, there were yet at large
thwarted villains enough in whom burned so strong a
desire for vengeance as to make assassination prob-
able. Hence it became the vigilants to l)e wary and
silent; hence, likewise, it was necessary that at all
hazards they should stand by each other.

But better counsel in due time prevailed, and once
the barrier broken, every recess was thrown o[)en to
me without reserve. Not only was all existing writ-
ten and printed material jJaced at my disposal, but
the fountains of memory fairly opened, a stream of

216

BEHIND THE SCENES.

briglit recollection flowed forth such as gladdonecl my
thirsty pen. Supplementing their copious dictations
with long and frequent interviews as my work pro-
gressed, I am enabled to present what I cannot but
regard as an important and wholly individual phe-
nomenon in the history of the race, as distinctly and
minutely as the most exact student of social develop-
ment could desire. And here let me remark that the
deeper I .sounded the subject the more I became
fascinated with it, and the clearer appeared to me the
])urity of purjiose, the wisdom of counsel, and the
masterly activity in execution, of those whose deeds
I chronicle.

It was on the north-east corner of Bush and San-
some streets that Mr Brannan had his office. There
in June, 1851, stood a row of two-story frame houses,
in the corner one of which the order-loving citizens of
San Francisco organized their first Committee, formed
for the ]iurpo.se of taking such measures as slu»ukl be
deemed necessary to secure safety to person and {prop-
erty. The lot directly opposite on the same side of
Sansome street was vacant and ungraded, and huge
hillocks of undisturbed sand rolled off toward the
south-west.

The entrance to the ccujmittee rooms was on Bush
street. The low ceilinijf and sides of the rooms were
lined with white cotton cloth, made dingy by tlust,
wet by such portions of the previous winter's rain
as could find its way througli the cracks. To the
feloniously afflicted a visit to the rooms was as terri-
fying an adventure as a visit to the cave of Trophonius.
]\Ir Brannan's offlce was up a narrow flight of steep
stairs, in a little room partitioned from the loft at the
Bush-street end. His business was extensive; in the
city he held much real estate, and in the country he
was proprietor of farms and mines. It was in tliis
little office that Neall and Oakes found him on the Sun-
day afternoon named, for business men in those days

E.UILY PROCEEDINGS.

217

the
rri-
ius.
eep
tho
the
lio
Ills
inl-
ays

ditl not usually close their offices on tlie Sahhath.
On the Hoor below were three rooms, intended i'or
stores, each fronting about twenty feet on Bush
street, and running back to a depth of some fifty feet.
The rooms* were at that time vacant, being for rent.
When the gathering of tlie citizens on Monday night
had filled to overllowing the middle room, Mr Hran-
nan took a knife, and cuttiuiX the canvas at the sides
and bottom, between portions of the studding, opened
passage-ways to the rooms on either side. The aj)er-
tures thus made were curtained by the still hanging
canvas.

There was little that was attractive about the
j)lace, and it offered few inducements to loungers.
These rough rooms, wherefrom renovation siiould pro-
ceed to cleanse the city of its foulness, contrasted
strangely with the mirrored and bedizened walls of
infamy. The gambler offered you brighter lights and
softer seats, but his smile was the leering, jeering,
sneering smile of Mypliistopheles.

Round a plain table were a few chairs, on which
were seated the more active workers of the assend)ly,
the secretary, president, and those engaged in pre-
paring articles of association and plans ior future
procedure; the rest stood in groups, leaned against
the walls, or seated themselves on boxes and boards
brought in through the back door. Little cared they
for rest or comfort, they who purposed neither rest
nor comfort for certain others. During some of these
intense excitements hundreds woulil remain on their
feet with no thought of food from morning till night,
seemingly without knowing it, so lost were they in
their surroundings.

There was little to say in explanation why they
liad been called tosjether, either at the meeting of
Monday noon t)r jNIonday night. All knew the ])ur-
])ose of the convention, and it remained oidy to
discuss the best method of accom})lishing it. That
which waj most essential was absolute secrecy, and

BEHIND THE SCENES.

this was first of all enjoined. Should courts, officers,
and criminals, through the treachery of any, be made
aware of their intentions, the best laid schemes were
sure to be thwarted. To secure at once secrecy, con-
cert of action, and efficiency, it was thought best to
resolve the working material of the association into
active and passive parts, the former to comprise the
Executive Committee, who should rule, and the latter
the General Committee, who should obey.

And it was done. The executive committee thus
became in reality the Vigilance Committee, and the
general committee auxiliary to it. Of the vigilant
forces the executive committee were the general and
his officers, or the president and his cabinet, and the
general committee the common soldiers. As a check
upon the abuse or misrepresentation of power, it was
made the duty of the executive committee, before
ultimate action on important questions, to lay their
propositions before the general committee and obtain
tiie sanction of its members; bu|; from the executive
committee must issue all orders, and they alone were
to be held responsible.

Monday night the protocols of constitution and
by-laws were drawn, and Tuesday night they were
adopted. Officers were chosen and sub- committees
appointed; and as the association met from day to
day, new necessities brought forth new rules. This
the records of the meetings will more clearly show,
and to them I now refer.

Selim E. Woodworth was the first president of the
general committee, and Samuel Brannan the first
president of the executive committee. Brannan's
term of office expired in three months; then Stephen
Payran was made president of the executive com-
mittee, and after Jiim Gerritt W. Ryekman. Money
was freely circulated in tliose days, and at times when
enthusiasm ran high ten thousand dollars if necessary
could be raised for a popular measure in an hour.

The archives of the executive committee of 1851,

COMMITTEE ARCHIVES.

219

which were kindly placed at my disposal by Mr Isaac
]31uxomc junior, secretary of the committees both of
1851 and 185G, consist of books of record and bundles
of loose documents. The first book of the committee
was that of the si<jners of the constitution. It is a
cap half- bound record, and the constitution occupies
the first two pages. On the margin of the second
page arc the words: President, S. E. Wood worth;
Treasurer, Eug. Delessert; Secretary, Is. Bluxomo;
and in another handwriting. Constitution adopted
June 9, 1851. Following the constitution are seven
hundred and sixteen signers, their names, j)laces of
business, and residence. A sojiarate book was kept
by the qualification committee, in which were entered
the names of those applying for membershij), and by
whom recommended. If approved, such a})proval is
noted and signed by the qualification committee. A
long narrow index-book was used for the purpose of
noting delinquents, and from this fines were reckoned.
As a rule members paid their fines cheerfully and
promptly.

The siiifiicrs of the constitution were numbered as
the names were written, and each was called l)y his
number. Admission of members to the meeting was
much the same as at a freemason's lodge; tlie a})pli-
cant, if unknown by sight to the door-keeper, called
his name and number, and was identified by the ser-
geant-at-arms. At times when extraorilinary caution
was necessary a password was u;sed. Then there is
the cash-book, kept by Eugene Delessert, treasurer,
in account with the Committee of Vigilance, and con-
tinued by George Ward. Among the chief items of
expense were .$192 the 14th of July for boat hire;
jassage, A. Wright, 19th of July, $100; trip to Sac-
ramento and expenses there in the arrest of B. Kay,
same date, §134. Other expenses in July, use of
steam-tug and boats, 6 1 00; rent, !?400; expenses
of Rider, Reynolds, and McDuflie, $190.50; carriage
hlrj, !$1G; A. J. McDuffij, scrgeant-at-arms, services

220

BEHI^TD THE SCENES.

I 'I;

:!i:

rendered, 61 50; and divers amountH pai»l newspapers,
and for lumber, car})enter work, (urniture, stationery,
and other sui)})lieM. In July was also j)aid the pas-
saj^c money of George Hopkins, 6100; travelHng ex-
penses of il. Miller, $1 00 ; McDuffie's services, 62;]4. 44.
( )n the I Ith of August was paid the sheriff's passage
by the steamer Oliio, '^V^b; the 11th of Se])tember,
.$50 was paid for carriage hire, and on the 13th, $225
passage money for prisoners. Notwithstanding the
grave matters before them, creature comforts were
not wholly neglected, as among other items I find
paid the Oriental Hotel $200, and the club-house, for
gin, brandy, and cigars, $58. Boat hire constituted
a large item of expense. None of the members of
the executive connnittcc drew salaries except the
secretary. Drinks are entered in the expenses of
agents and detectives in common with steam-boat fare
or any other outlay.

The revenue of the committee was derived chiefly
from the five -dollar subscriptions of members, and
donations from merchants and others. Durinj; the
month of June, a bank account was kept with Jamea
King of Wm,, with whom was deposited $1,070.1)7.
The account continues only through the month of
June, and the bank-book is not balanced. This ac-
count is kept with J. W. Salmon, treasurer. Mr
Salmon was the first treasurer and Eugene Delessert
the second. Salmon's account, dated the 7th of July,
shows receipts according to the above amount de-
posited, all of which was paid out for rent, carpenters,
water, police, sergeant-at-arms' salary, etc., except
$112.48, which Mr Salmon handed his successor, Mr
Delessert. C. H. Miller presents a claim the 22d
of July, "for cash expended by him in going to and
returning from Sacramento City three times for the
purpose of arresting Jimmy-from-Town, Dab Ains-
wortli, and George Adams, $100," which was allowed
and paid.
■ Eugene Delessert opens his cash-book the 1st of

THE MOXFA' DRIFT.

221

July, 1851, with tlio amount rcooived from his pre-
cleccHsor. During his term, which lasted until ^lay,
1852, the receipts were 67,75)1, 80. at which time
there was due him from the association !?2'J0.']8.
Georjjfe R. Ward then assumed the office of treasurer,
and up to October 7, 1852, tlie date of the last entry,
the book shows recei])ts to tiie amount of .$;}30.7(;.
Herewith I give fac-simUes of money-orders :

^^^J.<^55^i^

The roll-call of the executive committee forms a
separate book of fifty-one names in all, though some
from time to time were erased. This roll ])e<;ins with
the 24th of September, 1851, and continues, with in-
tervals of about a week between each call, to the 2;)tli
f>f April, 1852. Every member was re(|uired to pay
to the treasurer the sum of five dollars on joining.
At a meeting of the executive committee, held the
2 2d of October, it was ordered that a safe should he
j)urchased, in which the secretary should keep the
l)ooks and papers of the association.

The Connnittee of 1851 was not as complex in its
mechanism as the Committee of 1856. The former
had no military organization like that of the latter,

222

BEHIND THE SCENES.

BUSINESS ROUTINE. 2-J3

but a police orf^aiiization only; yet in case of emer-
gency the officers of the association had a way of
speedily adapting tlieir forces to circumstances.

Beside the regular j)olice there was a water police,
of which Ned Wakeman was chief. The regular police
were paid, but often members were detailed for police
duty who drew no pay. The city was districted, and
a committee appointed to oversee the affairs of each
district. The water [)olice were stationed along the
city front to keep an eye on shi[)s and sailors, and to
watch for thieves accustomed to enter from beneath
stores built over the water. Charles Minturn was in
the steam-boat business then, running tlio Senator on
the Sacramento River, and was supposed to have in
his possession a large amount of money. So it was
with others. There being no banks of deposit enjoy-
*'ig the confidence of the community, merchants kept

nr money in tlieir stores; and often large amounts
. gold dust were separated from the pirates under-
neath only by the thin partition of the floor. Curs
were not so plenty in California then as now; few
cared to keep a dog at an expense of one or two dol-
lars a day.

The sergcant-at-arms might call on any member, not
otherwise engaged in the service of the Committee, at
any time, for special duty. A printed form was fur-
nished for the summons, which read as follows :

" COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE.
" Andrew Andeeson :

"You are detailed for secret duty from ten o'clock to twelve o'clock
to-night, and will report accordingly to the Sergeant-at-Arms at tho
Committee Room. No. 58.

"San Francisco, June 19, 1S51."

It was resolved on the 27th of June that each
member should report himself at the committee
rooms once in every twenty-four hours.

Copies of passenger-lists of vessels arriving from
certain ports were obtained, and the character of the

224

BEHIND THE SCENES.

iiO\V arrivals carefully cxaniinod. Out of morov for
their historian I beg the coming conunittees of vigil-
ance to date their documents. In tlie luiLje inter-
mixtui'e before me are hundredy of letters, reports,
resolutions, and eviMi examinations and confessions,
to wliich it is im|)ossil)le to give their proper place in
this history, from the fact that they hear no (hite.
Wliat is strange about it is that most of these doc-
innents are written by business men, who would
never think of sending out a business letter with such
an omission.

Some of the minutes of meetings, notices, com-
])laints, evidence, and rejiorts are carelessly dated I 8;)!
during the early ])art of 18512, before the writer had
become accustomed to the new year. These blunders
1 am abK> to detect by comparing such )»a})ers with the
events spoken of Fortunately, from the records and
irom theii- connection tluM'cwith, 1 am abU) to j)lace
the most impoitant of these documents, but the labor
is doubled from their lackinu' date.

The vigilance system was one of popular espi()nage,
the most extensive and complete a liberal government
has ever seen. Every man was a spy on every other
man. ()p])osition was intimidated by the watchful
eye and siK'nt tongue. Ol'ti'U a bad man did not kn(>w
his lu'dfellow, or when or where to sjK'ak his mind.

One day a gi'oup of men, gathered in the bar-i-oom
of the Union ]lotel, stood talking somewhat too
loudly and vehemently against the ' stranglers,' when
Mr Kyckman stejiped in foi- his luncheon. After
listening attentively for a lew moments, though with-
out a'ppearing to notice them, he stepped uj) to out;
ol' the chief s])eakers, a wealthy, intluential man, whom
he Will knew, and called him aside, saying he wished
to speak a word with him. When they were alone
IJyckman drew from his pocket an imprint of the
watchful eye, the end)lenj of the organization, anil
showing it to him, said:

ESPIONACE.

i-»OfJ

" The Committeo will see you at tlicir rooms this
cveiiinijf at eight oVUk'Iv."

"My God, Ryckinaul wliat do you mean? Surely
you are not one of them ("

"I mean what J say," answered liyckman. "These
men are stakinjjf their lives and fortunes for the unm-
oral ij^ooil, and they shall not he vilified in my hear-
UMX hehind their hacks. If vou have anv eharijes to
make, and will suhstantiate them, they will listen to
your accusation ajj^ainst themselves, or any one of
their numher, as dispassionately as they will listen t(»
my aecusatit)n airainst you. (Jood-day. You will he
there at the appointed hour."

As Ryckman moved otf, his <|uondam friend siM/ed
hold of him, and in the most piteous terms hejjcii^ed him
to recall the oi'der I'or his airest, promisinu^ ii'sjtectful
])i'udence lor the future. With some furtlu'r words
of admonition, to this at lenij^th Ryckman was con-
strained to yield assent, and so left him.

The serLjeant-at-arms reports, at thi> meetinjjj of
July 4th, nunduTs ,'{17, 2t>4, and *2.'U> as injurious to
the Committee, an<l thenceforth those members were
refused admission.

Poi-. TuiD., Vol. I. 15

:-:|

ill m

■

CHAPTEK XV.

JOHN JEXKINS, NOLENS VOLENS.

A dismal universal hiss, the sound of public scom.

Miltoii.

In Washington Block, on Long Wharf, was the
shipping office of Mr Virgin. It was customary,
under the reckless regime of that business epoch, for
merchants and others to leave their offices unlocked
during the day, coming and going at pleasure, while
in the drawer or money-box might be thousands of
dollars in gold. Prior to this time it was even more
common. Mr Neall informs me that in 1849, often
on Sunday he would tie his tent strings, take his gun,
and march oft' over the sand-hills, leaving thus exposed
his stock, and sometimes fifty thousand dollars in gold
dust locked in a little iron box which one blow of a
hammer would shiver. This spirit of indifference to
money among money-making men, and the absence of
suspicion between those so lately strangers, is one of
the strangest characteristics of the times. It is no
wonder that the men of Svdney, accustomed to the
ponderous vaults which barred their fingers from the
property of their English brethren, should laugh with-
m their hearts at the shrewd simplicity of these care-
less money- getters.

Like his neighbors, Mr Virgin kept his money in a
small iron safe, such as a strong man could easily
carry, and on leaving his office he never thought of
lockinsx the door. There was a stranger ^Ir Virgin
had noticed several times of late lounging about the
wharf; a tall, powerful man, with keen, restless eyes,

( '220 )

THE ROEBERY.

though, as the shipping agent imagined, a somewhat
sinister expression about the face. He was just the
person, one would think, successfully to cope with
difficulties in virtuous endeavor in such a place as
California. Indeed he once entered Mr Virgin's office
and spoke of passage to the upper country and of the
several chances for an honest man in various parts;
and although to the intuitive perceptions of the Cali-
fornian these lacked the genuine ring of honest pur-
pose, the shipping agent tliought little of it, as there
Avere hundreds of adventurers who came to him daily,
destined they knew not whither.

For several days this man had been lurking about,
awaiting such time as would at once fmd this office
empty and the coast clear without; for the truth is,
the Sydney stranger, for such he was, had some time
since resolved to appropriate to himself in one lumji
tlie proceeds of many laborers rather than to go and
dig for himself There was greater risk in such ad-
venture, and greater skill required in its achievement,
but he would undertake it.

The time chosen was Tuesday, the 10th of Juno,
1851, toward the dusk of evening. Mr Virgin was
absent from his office attendin<j: to the sailiny; of <tiio
of his vessels, and the attention of loungers about tlu;
M'harf was momentarily called in the same direction.
It was a bold, a brazen thing to do; one would think
the chances altogether against the thief And so they
were; but when philosophers in some certain quarters
of their mind are such fools, when the ablest scholars
in science, divinity, and jurisprudence as a rule in-
dulge each in some quaint absurdity of so simple a
nature as to call to the face of homely conmion-sense
a smile, surely we should not look for perfection in
skilled villainy. It is asking too much of the genius
of rascality that every thread of logic in its hypotheses
sliould be equally strong while the genius of morality
is often so bat-blind and owlish.

He would try it. Throwing round him one last

JOIIX JENKINS!, NOLENS VOLENS.

liurricd glance, he tliencefortli shut his eyes to con-
sequences, and stepping into the office ho seized the
sale, sHj)ped round the building, and dropping it into
a boat ready for the ])ur])ose, shot from the wharf.
It was all done in an instant; and once out upon the
Bay with his prize he did not stop to see what was to
come of it, but pulled away with all his might for the
op])osite shore.

VirLfin shortly returned and missed his safe. Raising
the alarm, he soon found sc!V(,'ral who had seen the
man with his burden, and instantly a dozen l)oats
were in hot ])ursuit.

At such a time every riglit-thiidving man made his
neighbor's cause his own. This was another of the
})eculiarities of Californian cliai-acter incident to tlu;
times. I do not mean to say that it is unconnnon or
less natural lor virtue to band lor self-[>rotection than
for vice; but in California moi-e tlian elsewhere, and
then more than now, there was manifest a fratei-nal
feeling among both the good and tlie bad such Jis I
have never witnessed elsewlu'rc In coming hither
all were strangers in a strange land; all had nmch in
(ronunon; each carried his Ibrtune in his own hand;
in the absence of firm general rule each aloiu? felt
unprotected; hence tlieri; was more than ordinarily
apparent that natural uniting instinctive to weakness.

One boat with but a single oarsman, even though
he were a strong man whose life de|>ended on his
exei'tion, was no match for a dozen boats well manne<l
])y skilful rowers; so the thief soon saw, as he would
say, that the game was up. ]iut they should not have
the mon(>y though he swung for it. What he could
not enjoy they should not. Jlalf the battle would be
won, though they should caj)ture him, if he could
cheat them of one of the objects of their eag(;r \)uv-
suit; so he threw the safe overboard and i)ulled away
harder than ever.

J]ut all in vain; for presently ho saw his head siu-
rounded by twenty o[)en-mouthed pistols, each thirsty

BEFORE THE COMMITTEE.

220

to drink lii« life. Tlie cull to stop was unnocoR.saiy ;
the thief rested on lii.s oars and was a ])risoner. Tlu;
spot was marked by liis pursuers wliere the sale wns
dn^pped; and while some stop])ed to fisii it out, which
was successfully accomplished, others conveyed the
j)risoner to the new tribunal of the peoj)le, as the one
most projx.'r to administer justice accordinjjf to tlu!
temper of the times. Two or three policemen made
their a])i)earance alter the man was taken, and su^-
^ested that they had a .^al'e and ja-oper [dace for him;
but they were told not to disturb their sleep by lookiii'Lj
aftei" other people's pi'isoners.

The citii^ens' meetlnj^ at Brannan's stores on this
Tuesday niLjht, as v*e have seen, was adjourned, id-
tliou'^di the mend)er.s of the newly or^^anized association
had not dispersed. While they were conversing upon
ad'aii's yt;t up[)ermost in their min<ls a knock was heard,
and word came in that a thief had been taken, and
that his cajttoi's waited v ith him outside. They were
ordered in. (^)uicker than had l)een surmised was here
ail op])ortunity to test the lU'W machinery, and see
how the so lately imj)rovised judicial enj^'ine under
Mction would l)ehave.

.\s the prisoner, dosi'ly guarded, entered, the C.di-
I'ornia (.'ompany's bell soimded the alarm, calling all
good citizens to i-ally to tin' supjiort of their Com-
mittee. The thing was not done stealthily, midei'
cover of darknes«, as we havt.' so often Ijeeii told. I
have it on the authority of Mr Xeall himself that his
associate, Mr Oakes, with a bilU.'t of wood in his own
hand, struck the bell twenty times and more;, three
strokes and a pause each sounding, such being the
signal agreed on.

Still surrijunded by his captors with cocked pistols
ill their hands, the jirisoner was placed before his
judges, Kough, tall, powerful, of line ])hysi(|Ue, with
Knglish dj'ess and cast of feature, he stood glaiiiig
deliance through the dim candle-light like a foiled
Argantes. lie was an Australian convict, and known

230

JOHN JENKINS, NOLENS VOLENS.

to miiny present as an old offender. Simpton war; his
true name, but lie called himself John Jenkins; and
in so far as this apparent predilection is concerned wo
will humor him, and so pass him to posterity. Ho
was a vicious-looking man, a desperate character, who
o;i many occasions liad eluded justice, and his record
would entitle him to the severest punishment. All
this coultl be easily proven.

Few who heard the strokes upon the California
Company's bell on that night knew the exact purport
of its sounding. They knew that the confused events
of the last several months had boded dire combustion ;
but speaking little, each joined the throng, which was
soon discovered to be leading to the little frame house
standing on the corner of Bush and Sansome streets.

The executive committee immediately organized as
a court, with the president, Samuel Brannan, as chief
iudu'e, and the members of the Committee as associate
judges. The sergeant-at-arms was required to clear
the rooms of all save tlie members and officers of the
tribunal, which now numbered about seventy names.
Tlie case was then opened and testimony taken. To
l>rove the last offi;nce was a simple matter, as there
were jircsent many well known and highly credible
witnesses fresh from the scene. It was then proposed
to inquire into his previous conduct, and bring testi-
mony, if obtainable, in regard to former crimes. This
was easily done, as there were those present in the
gathered multitude without who know him well, and
his act^ were bold and recent. A committee was
apjiointed to obtain witnesses for the accused.

Both before and after the arrest of Jenkins quiet
and good order prevailed. Within the committee
room there was no undue excitement, and without
there was no disturbance. Yet notwithstandini; the
general calmness there was no little nervousness be-
neath the surface of things. Here was a desperate
deed, unparalloled in its audacity, done in the teeth
and at the very moment of the vigilance organization.

CONDEMNED.

881

At one time during tlic proceedings there appeared
to be some faltering on the part of the judges, or
rather a hesitancy to take the lead in assuming re-
sponsibility, and braving what might be subsequent
odium. It was one thing for a half-drunken rabble to
take the life of a fellow-man, but quite another thing
for staid church-fjoinfj men of business to do it. Then
it was that William A. Howard, a man of impetuous
bravery, after watching the cooling zeal for a few
moments, rose, and lajnng his revolver on the table,
looked about over the assembly; then in slow, clear
enunciation said: "Gentlemen, as I understand it,
we are here to hang somebody I" The look and man-
ner were enough; there was no more halting.

The trial lasted until eleven o'clock, when the
prisoner was conducted to an adjoining room, and the
jury were called to render their decision. The ver-
dict was unanimous; the prisoner was guilty and
should be hanged.

"When?"

"The sooner the better; immediately. Safety de-
manded prompt action in the exercise of this now
expedient."

Ryckman entered the prisoner's room and made
known to him the decision of the tribunal,

"Bosh I" was the only reply.

"Tell me truly, what is your name?" asked Ryck-
man.

" John Jenkins."

" Mr Jenkins, you are to die before daybreak."

" No, I am not."

"Have you any money or message to send your
friends?"

" No."

" Do you wish me to write to any one for you?"

" No."

" Can I do anything for you?"

"Yes; give me some brandy and a cigar." These
were given him. He drank deep, and smoked with

!l^

JOIIX JEXKIXS, XOLEX.S VOLEXS.

a relish. Mr Ryckmaii then asked tlic coiideinnccl
if he would like a clergyman; and if ho, of what
denomination. Jenkins, after receiving repeated as-
surances that his death was near, intimated that if ho
must have one he would prefer an Episcopalian;
accordingly the Rev. Mr Mines was sunnnoned and
came immediately.

Mr Mines had not been long alone with the pris-
oner before the Conmiittee began to be impatient. It
was the sentiment of the meeting that prayers and
exhortations should be short, as well as trials and
executions. The police might rally and attempt a
rescue; then Broderick, too, was out with all his force,
and strongly opposed to the Committee. At last Mr
R^'ckman could curb his restlessness no longer, and
entering again the prisoner's room, he said: "Mr
]\Iincs, you have now consumed throe quarters of an
hour, and I want you to bring this prayer business to
a close. I am going to hang this man in fifteen min-
utes."

Throughout the entire ])rocccdings the bearing of
the prisoner was defiant and insulting. He confidently
expected to be rescued at any moment, and openly
intimated as much. Indeed, while the trial was in
l)rogress the Committee were informed by its officers
that already the rouijfhest characters throughout the
city were fully apprised of the organization, and they
knew that one of their number was that night taken
before it. ]Mingling with the crowd around the
buildin!^:, listeninij to what was said, and watchinu:
those that enter(.'d and came out, it was easy to see
that something unusually stern was going on within;
and they migiit v/ell infer, if they purposed to save
their comrade, they had best rail}" to his rescue soon.
When the verdict of the jury was told the piisonci-,
he heaped on them maledictions and told them to do
their worst.

The sentence of immediate execution was opposed
by some, on the ground that it was neither manly

TESTING PUBLIC OPINION.

233

ted

nor politic. "To hang liini at night, in such hot
haste," said Coleman, "would be to lay at our door
an undeserved imputation of cowardice. Though our
judgments be in secret, our deeds should be visible
in the l)road light of open day; let this unfortunate
man be held till morning, then let him be hanged by
the light of the rising sun." This sentiment, however,
found few supporters; and when the clergyman came
in soon after and reported the criminal impenitent,
when he informed them that for his prayers he re-
ceived naught but curses, those who had advised delay
gave way and offered no further objection to inune-
diate action.

While this was going on, it had been thought best
to test the (juality and sentiment of the pe(>[)le sur-
rounding the building, to tell them what tlie Com-
mittee had done, and what it now proposed to do.

" Sam, you go out and harangue the crowd," said
Ryckman to Brannan, "while we make ready to
move." Mr Brannan assented, first asking Mr James
C. L. Wads worth to accompany him. The two gentle-
men went out, and the crowd opened a passage-way
ft)r them. Mr Brannan was a ht match for lighting
the poi)ular flame. As ready in the use of invective
as the gi'cat high-priest of his Mormon order; as full
of oaths, as ilatly coarse, and roundly ribald as a chief
of banditti, no one was more apt in such an emer-
gency than he. Ascending the mound of sand oppo-
site the old Bassette House, ^Ir Brannan poured forth
a torrent of words such as would di'own a pliilij)[)ic of
])emosthencs. He abjured the law-courts, execrated
the judges, and taunted the peoide for tlieir tame
submission to criminal rule. Finally he informed
them that ho, in company with ]\Ir Wadsworth, had
been deputed by the Connnittee to report what they
had done. After an impartial trial the jirisoner had
been found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, the
execution to take place on the phiza in one hour. A
clergyman had been sent for, and all things slK>uld be

234

JOHN JENKINS, NOLENS V0LEN3

i ': '4

done in accordance with the solemnity of the occasion;
and he cliargcd the people, as they valued the peace
and dignity of the commonwealth, to make no rush
or disturbance durinuj the solemn scene which was to
follow, assuring them that the Committee would en-
deavor to conduct everything to their satisfaction.

"And now," said he, "tell me, does the action of
the Committee meet with your approval?"

A mingled shout of 'ays' and 'noes' went up
from the crowd, with cheers and cries of "Who is the
speaker?" "Who are the Committee?" "No names I"
"No names I" The 'ays' were larixely in the ma-
jority, and the crowd moved off toward the plaza.

A connnittee was then appointed, consisting of
Coleman, Wakeman, and Schenck, to select a place
and make arrangements for the execution, and to re-
port as soon as possible. The three men set out at a
round pace on their mission, and although it was then
after twelve o'clock they found the city sleepless, and
the streets alive with people. There seemed to be
something magnetic about the old plaza, for whenever
young San Francisco had any special prank in hand
that was almost sure to be the play-ground chosen.
After discussing the advantages of several points, the
three midnight gibbet-hunters linally settled upon
making use of the old adobe custom-house building
then standing in the plaza. No sooner had they
arrived at a decision than a messenger was despatched
to head-quarters, saying that all would be ready in
fifteen minutes. The arrangements were soon com-
pleted. A rope was thrown over a high beam of the
veranda at the south end of the building, a noose
was made at one end of it, and all was ready.

At half-past one the door was thrown open, and
the members of the Committee passed out into the
street. There they found that the people had not
been wholly unmindful of them; for two large ropes
had been procured and were held by lines of men on
either side of the entrance, leaving a passage-way for

MARCH TO THE PLAZA.

'-Mj

the Committee, aiul at tlie same time formini:]^ a l):inie'r
to protect them from the j)ressure of the crowd. The
Committee then formed within the ropes, in two lines
of two ahreast ; the prisoner, hound, and uncku- a stron«jf
H'uard, was placed hetween them; tlie hnes wei-e then
closed at either end, and thus they marched (juickstep
towartl the plaza.

Among the numher was little Georj^e Ward, as
hrimful of snap as a lire -cracker, and as hrave as
Jack the Giant-Killer. As he marched, marched
away, hrandisliini^ his weapon as one hent on douui'hty
deeds, Xed Wakeman cried out, "Take the pistol
away from that hoy; he will hurt somel)odyl"

]>efore marchinL(, Bluxome tapped his revolver and
said to the prisoner: "In any attempt which may he
made to take you out of our hands, at the first move-
ment you make to escape, you die. That is my pai't
of this night's progrannne." "Yes, sir!" chimed in
Ward, "if the police attempt to seize you, sir, we
will blow your head oft", sir'"

As the Committee started their prisoner on his last
earthly walk the California (Company's hell tolled the
death knell of the condcnmed, striking in the stillness
of the night upon the ears of that outraged community
with awful solenmitv. Fainter and fainter the strokes
were heard, like the dying of earthly sounds to tlie
(le})artiiig soul, as the column marched away; hut
as it neared the scene of execution the Monumental
( "ompany's bell struck clear and full upon the ear.
Ah I then and since, at the tolling of that ^lonu-
iiuntal bell, how the consciences of its hearers were
] iricked; how to guilty souls accusing voices whis|)ered;
liow hearts sank, and breaths thickened, and limbs
Ivembled, until, like Eugene Aram, they were seized
with an irresistible imi)ul >e to confess their sins and
yield themselves up to ju.sticol

^lean while the officers of the law and the des-
]>eradoes had not been idle. 'Choir emissaries kept
tliem fully informed as to the movements about the

230

JOHN JENKINS, NOLENS VOLENS.

Comrnlttco morns; and wlien the column formed In
IVont of the door tliey (juiekly knew it, and determined
on an attaek, Colleetini'' ahoiit the corner of Clay
and Kearny streets, tlu;v waited the ai)proa('hin_i; j)r()-
oession, But the ViLjilance Connnittee w«.'r(; matle
aware of their intention, and were j)re])ared for them.
All had their wea})()ns ready, and were tletermined, if
neeessarv, to use them. If thwarted now they felt
that they mi<jht almost as well ahandon the country
as attem].)t its ])urjj[ation further. As they ai)|)roached
the plaza, Benjamin Hay, chief of police, made a dash
for the })risoner; but this was more a feint made under
color of duty than a real attem})t at rescue, lie was
easily thi-ust aside, and then was jjlaiidy told that he
had better keep awa3\ The desperadoes were next
U]ion them, but they were beaten back without much
ditKcultv, and the cohunn continued its way unbroken.
Near the centre of the j)laza stood the liberty pole;
and as they entered the square some thought the
purpose was to use it as a gallows.

'' No, no! not there'" they shouted. "Don't dese-
crate the liaixl" So said the um'easoning ral)ble; for
if it was a righteous deed that was to be dcjne how
would it hurt the Hag?

Some confusion ensued; but soon the patriotic
populace was made aware tl j such was not the in-
tention, and all was quiet again. Arriyed at the south
porch of the old adobe, the [)i-isoner was placed beneath
the roj)e, which passed through a pulley fastened to
the railing of the yeranda, and about half- past two
the noose was adjusted round his neck.

" Eyery loyer of liberty and good order lay hold!"
cried Brannan; and scarcely were the words uttered
when fifty hands grasped the roi)c, and with a sudden
jerk which broke his neck tho unfortunate man was
lifted upward, and his guilty soul shot hence into the
unknown realm of the beyond.

During the latter part of this tragic scene tho
conlemned had manifested the utmost indifference.

RHSrOXSIDILITY.

237

Thoufrli lie well know that tlio failure of tho fraternity
to roseue hini scaled his doom, ho wa.s oalni and
couraufooUH to tho last. Ho niarcliod to his doatii
with firm stop and fearless oyo, smoking tho while,
and died with a cigar in his mouth.

Tlie hodv was U^ft iian<nnu, under a strong citizens'
guard, until six o'clock, when it was given up to tho
authorities, and was cut tlown hy tho city marsjial.
Two hundred and eighteen dollars were found in tho
])ockots of tho deceased, which wont to defray the
burial o vponsos.

While it was ahsi.lutely necessary that the Vigilance
Connnittoo should keep its own counsel, that its in-
vestigations and intentions should rest a profound
secret in the breast of the few, the meml)ors wore no
loss determined tliat every one of their acts should l)o
performed as under the eye of God, as under the
direction < f a pure conscience, and should be such as
niiglit li't r ..V the alter scrutiny of tlieir fellow-men.
Some now felt the resj)onsihility so burdensome th.at,
whiK' their hoai'ts were in thi, cause, their courage was
made ci-avon by fears of tho consequence. IJut of tho
executive connnittoo there were comparatively few so
sti'icken. Some natures, ijfood enouiih in their way,
shrink from dangerous responsibility; some ai'o cowards
by instinct. Such the stronger souled bowed kind God-
sj)eed to tho connnittoo room dooi', and l)a<lo them go,
then turned their thouglits to jjractical justice. Up
to this time no oath of secrecy had been administered
to mond)ers of tlio Gonnnittee; all that was re(iuired
for admission into tlio society was a rocommonchition
from a member who vouched for the character of the
applicant.

The testimony of Mr IBrannan at tho coroner's
inquest, held tho day following, further illustrates
tho objects of the association and the manner in
wliich the trial was conducted. But it must l)o re-
membered that the t)porations of tho Committee were

238

JOHN JENICmS, NOLENS VOLENS.

not then systomatizod in all their parts, nor did Mr
Brannan deem it prudent to tell all he knew. Some
questions he declined to answer. What he said was
as follows: Tliat he first saw the man at the corner
of Bush and Sansomc streets. Two men held him
by the arms, who said that they had arrested him.
He was not then handcuffed or pinioned. He was
tried fairly, by sixty or eighty persons, and the ver-
dict of guilty was unanimous. The jury impanelled
themselves; they were composed of the committee
of safety, all citizens of the town. He had heard
throats made against the lives and property of the
members; a prisoner in the county prison swore
that he, Brannan, should not live ninety days. Ho
knew of nothing done by the Committee that they
would conceal from the officers of the law under
proper circumstances.

On the other hand. Hall McAllister testified that,
going to the committee rooms about twelve o'clock,
he endeavored to obtain admittance, but was re-
pulsed. He saw others give the countersign and
enter, each whispering to the door-keeper the pass-
word, which obtained him entrance. He neither
participated in the proceedings nor sympathized with
the party; later he was disgusted at what he deemed
an outrage.

"No man need be afraid to let his children know
the part he took in that transaction," writes the
editor of the Courier, three days after the event.
Speaking of the constitution and by-laws of the
Vigilance Committee, which ap})eared in the public
prints of the 13th of June, signed by the then exist-
ing members, the Herald says: "If any guaranty
were re<iuisite of the justice and fairness of the pro-
ceedings of Tuesday night, it is furnished in this array
of names, the most respectable and inffuential in the
city. That the Committee did not sit with closed
doors for any sinister purpose will likewise be evident
from this voluntary publication."

CORONER'S JURY.

239

At the coroner's inquest the following verdict was
rendered :

" We, the jurors of a jury of inquest iinpanclled by the coroner of tlie
county of San Francisco to inquire into the cause of the death of one John
Jenkins, alias Simpton, do find, upon their oaths, that the said Jenkins, alias
Simpton, came to liis dcatli on the morning of the 11th of June, between the
hours of two and three o'clock, by violent means, by Btran<;ulation, caused by
bc'jg suspended by the neck with a ropo attached to the south end of the
adol>o building on the plaza, at the hands of, and in pursuance of a precon-
certed action on the part of an association of citizens, styling themselves a
Committee of Vigilance, of whom the following members are iuiTiiicated by
direct testimony, to wit: Capt. Edgar Wakeman, Wm. H. Joncs, James C.
Ward, Edward A. King, T. K. Battelle, Benj. Reynolds, J. S. Eagan, J. C.
Derby, and Samuel Branuan."

To which the Committee made reply:

"Ilesoived, That we, the members of the Committee of Vigilance, remark
with surprise the invidious verdict rendered by the coroner's jury upon their
inquest upon the body of Jenkins, after we have all notified the said jury and
the public that we are all participators in the trial and execution of said
Jenkins. We desire that the public will understand that Claptain E. Wake-
man, W. H. Jones, James C. Ward, Edward A. King, T. K. Battelle,
Benjamiu Reynolds, J. S. Eagan, J. C. Derby, and Sam'l Brannan, have
been unnecessarily picked from our number, as the coroner's jury have had
full evidence of the fact that all the undersigned have been equally impli-
cated, and are equally responsible with their above named associates. "

This was signed by one hundred and eighty mem-
bers of the Committee, and published in the pubUc
journals of the day.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE SAN FRANCISCO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF 1851.

Solid men of Boston, Ijanish long potations;
Solid men of Boston, make no long orations.

Morris.

The association was admirably systematized, dis-
playing marked ability on the part of the manage-
ment. Each member of the general committee,
whether composed of fifty, five hundred, or five
thousand men, knew his place, knew exactly what to
do when an alarm sounded ; and further than that he
knew nothing. He could keep well the secret which
was never intrusted him. He knew enough, l)ut not
too much; enough to direct him on all occasions what
to do, but not enough to enable him to question and
to cavil.

It was the duty of the executive committee to see
that every person brought before them accused of
crime should have a fair trial; that none should be
convicted upon less testimony, setting aside legal
technicalities and court clap-trap, than would suffice
to convict in any respectable court of justice. The
executive committee made no arrests, unless it so
happened that some member of irrepressible activity
should pick up a criminal now and then; but it was
their province to take cognizance of everything con-
nected with the association, great and small. This
was the central power round which all interests re-
volved. It was tlic inquisition, the privy council, the
secret spring that moved the ponderous machinery,
the living, thinking soul, of which the general com-
mittee was the body corporate. All power was lodged

(MO)

ARREST AND EXAMINATION.

241

charsfcs that sliould bo brou«»:ht afjaiiiist him.
mifjlit tliink that a stranjfer telhii'L': his

in them; all secrets were lodged with them; all
orders emanated from them, and every member of
the association was bound to obey unquestioninfi^ly,
unhesitatingly, and as blindly as a common soldier
obeys his commanding officer.

When an "rrcst was made, the usual course was
iirst to confine ilio prisoner, under guard, in a room
or cell provided for that purpose, until an examina-
tion could be made. A sub-committee was then ap-
pointed by the executive committee to make the
investigation, the results of which were reported to
the executive committee for final action. When
brought before the Committee, the prisoner was first
examined as to his antecedents, inquiries made into
his present life, and then investigations 'nade of any

■ One

own story
could deceive at pleasure. But tliis was not so easily
done. Xo one was arrested except for some cause.
Before and after the arrest all information possiblu
concerning the culprit was obtained and laid before
the Committee. The prisoner was unaware what his
inquisitors knew or diil not know; an<l with a scf>re
or two of sharp eyes upon him, he felt neither com-
fort nor confidence in his lying. After the trial and
conviction of a criminal by the executive committee
the case was referred for approval and confirmation
to the ijeneral connnittee, who almost invariablv
confirmed the decision of the executive committee .
Often a tale of innocence such as an angel might,
tell was interrupted with questions like these: " My
good man, do you not know there is net a word of
truth in what you are saying? Do you not know
that you were put on board the Susan Wright, bound
for Australia, the I3th of September, 1843, in irons»
and that you came to California with money stolen
at Hobart Town? Do you not know that on the
night of the fire, the 4th of May, you were in tlio
Magnolia saloon, and not at San Josd, as you have

Pop. Tbib., Vol. I. 10

1242

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF 1851.

said? Unless, sir, you can speak the truth, you will
be sent back to your cell and tried on more trust-
worthy testimony."

The records of the executive committee begin
with the 10th of June, with Samuel Brannan as
chairman and David S. Turner secretary. At this
meeting it was ordered that the captains of the night
patrol be vested with full powers by the executive
committee to act as they might see fit; and further,
to have the privilege of choosing for the guard such
men from the general committee as they should please;
iind that the said captains of patrol should be in-
structed to keep all information they might acijuiro
during the night a profound secret pending the action
of the executive committee to make it known to the
general committee.

On motion of Wm. T. Coleman it was ordered that
all refreshments should ho })laced under the control oi'
the seru'eant-at-arms, and bv him dealt out onlv to
members on duty; and that spirituous licjuors for tlu'
use of the Committee should l)e excluded from the
iliuilding. It was likewi;«ie directed that the heads of
committees shoulil bo instructed to keep secret all in-
formation which mii»ht come to tlieir knowledj^e.
Takiny- i\w floor, ]Mr l^rannan urixed that some one
sliould wait Uj)on the district attorney and learn tin-
particulars of a certain criminal case then jK-nding,
and all other matteis o*' interest to the cause. This
measure was resolved on; and also that a committee of
ithree sliould wait on the mavor an<l the sheriff, asci-f
tain their strength, the strength of prisons, the con-
dition of ])risoners, and their disposition to cooperate
with the Committee in their work of reform.

The last entry in the first book of minutes of tlic
association is under date of July 4, 1851. Between
this date and the oj)eiiiiig of the large book of pro
cecdings the 17tli of September the interval is left
without record save on loose papers, the writing on
which is oftentimes half ol>l iterated.

DAILY DUTIES.

243

(Ige.

pro-
1 left

During the most of this time, that is to say from
June to September, the executive committee met
and lield court every day. Tliere was work enougli
to keen them all busy. Information concerning crimes
and criminals came i)ouring in on them from every
(juartei . Individual informers and country connnittees
of vigilance were hourly notifving the Connnittee of
the whereabouts of felons who must be hunted down
and brought to trial. With a large, active, and en-
thusiastic police force constantly bringing up cases
ie(|uiring the most careful consideration; with the
rapid arrival of vessels having on board convicts and
(|UestionabK- characters, invtJving personal examina-
tion on the part of the agents or emissai'ies of the
association of hundnds of men and women; with live
or ten j»risoners on trial at one time, requiring the
employment of counsel, the searching for and ex-
amining of witnesses, the taking of testimony and
receiving and recording confessions, of which cjass of
ilocuments the archives of the association are largely
composed; with an occasional hanging to be done,
and a constant shipping away of those so sentenced
iy the Connnittee — securing their passage, and laising
tlie money to pay it, and attending them beyond the
(Jolden Gate; with the watching of judges, and the
proceedings of courts of justice; with five hundred
imjiatient members to satisfy, who were always eager
tor something to be done; with the settling of differ-
ences of oj)inion anu)ng themselves, and the general
and particular care of the workings of the new and
strange machinery- with all this and nuich more, 1
>ay, these judges had work enough to do in the
conscientious execution of their self-imposed duties.

It was ordered at the meeting of the executive
(•onnnittee the I7th of June that some [)lan of j)ro-
ceeding should be adopted as to the disposition of
those ordeied to leave. They resolved likewise to
watch the proceedings of the trial of a noted burglar.
Thi> next meeting directed the chief of police to bring

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITIEE OF 1851.

before the Committee one under sentence of banish-
ment, to hear what he had to say in his defence. The
testimony was very lengthy, occupying the Com-
mittee more than five hours. It was all taken down
by the secretary and filed with the other papers in
the case. The evidence thus far was rather against
him, and his case was continued. Meanwhile the
June fire occurred, and the wrath of the citizens
waxed hot against the supposed incendiaries. The
executive committee offered a reward of five thou-
sand dollars for the delivery into their power, with
evidence sufficient to convict, of any person guilty of
the crime of arson.

It well became the officers of the law during the
movement of 1851 to treat the Vigilance Committee
with profoun<l respect. So heartily were the people
in sympathy with the organization that there was
little sentiment wasted on the rights and divinity
of law. The men of law were watched as doselv bv
the rciorniers as were the lawless, and the higher the
seat of corruption the sooner was It assailed. Woe,
then, to him of evil conscience; be he sheriff', judge,
or governor, his sins shall not go unpunished !

The sum of ^wq hundred dollars was voted the
captain of police, the 1st of Jul}', for secret service
money. At the same time inquiry was to be made
into the manner of the arrest of a negro by an oflficer
of the law. The business transacted by the Com-
mittee the 2d of July was as follows : Being informed
by Captain ^IcGowan, of the revenue cutter, of the
arrival of the bark John Potter from Sydney, a com-
mittee of five was appointed to visit the vessel and
report. Communications, one from the Committee of
Vigilance of Santa Clara, another about a robbery,
another from the Vigilance Committee of Marysvillc
in regard to the Jansen affair, were read and acted on.
Captain White, of the brig CameOy bound for Sydney
direct, informed the Committee that he was ready to
take with him any scoundrels they might wish to

INTERCOURSE OF MEMBERS.

245

send, at the rate of one hundred dollars each. Ho
promised likewise to give bonds for their safe delivery
at Sydney or Hobart Town.

It was hardly to be supposed, as humanity is con-
structed, that so many men of nervous energy, of
independent thought and pronounced ideas, sliDuld
not differ warmly in their opinions on occasions; in
other words, that they should never quarrel. The
wonder is that they could hold together at all; that
the mercury in their natures should so marry the
metal of their minds as to form a solid ball of amal-
gam which no infelicities of temper could dissipate.
Indeed their quarrels were never anything but chil-
(Inii's quarrels. So deep was their respect for each
otl;er, so impressed were they with the importance
of their undertaking, and so earnest in their purpose,
that self was swallowed in the common cause, and
])orsonal pride and pique were but the momentary
stinging of a gnat. In their high purpose, then,
I say, they were men ; in their disagreements,
cliildren.

In July, 1851, Mr Brannan sent in his resignation,
both as president of the association and as member of
the executive connnittec. It seems that some sharp
words had passed between him and ^IcDuffic, ser-
geant-at-arms. As I have said, ^Ir Brannan was just
the man to incite a revolution, but he was not the
man to conduct one. The shot of determinate purpose
once fired from his brain, like Nelson at Copenhagen
^\itll his blind eye to the telescope, he would not
sec the signal of retreat. There were better men
tlian Brannan for president: there were fifty as good
as IMcDuffie for sergeant -at -arms. Yet these were
Itoth good and true men in the present emergency.
Tlie cause owed much to Mr Brannan; and that it
needed him less now was not sufficient reason, in the
eyes of his associates, that he should be sacrificed to
his own irascibihty. So a committee was appointed
to heal the feud between the officers; and sucli. w itli

24fi

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF 18.J1.

1)ut few exceptions, was the qualit}' of magnanimity
manifested by these men througliout their entire in-
tercourse.

Pavran was of this Committee one of the leading
s[)irits. He was a man of dignity and courage, and
ready ahke with tongue or pen. lie liad heen a copy-
ist in Phihidel[>hia, and took down testimony rapidly
and easily. The following incident illustrates at once
his character, and the method, or rather the lack of
method, (.'niployed by the vigilants in the execution
of their commissions:

It ha[)pened that a poor woman who had adopted
a young tilrl, then about ten vears of age, and was
striving as best she mi<'ht to rear her chariife virtu-
ously, one day rushed t(t the eommittee rooms and
entered an a])peal which moved the hearts of all
present. Certain former associates of the child's
mother ha<l just then abducted the girl from hir
guardian and had hurried her oft' to Marysvillc, there
to be eventually em[)lovecl, as the woman was assured,
for vile [)urposc's. Pavran asked to be ap})ointecl a
eommittee of one to recover the child.

" But what can one do^" asked a niend)er of the
Committee. "Marysvillc, as yon are well aware, is
ruled entirely l>y the roughs, of whom the local com-
mittee themselves stand in awe."

" Nevertheless, 1 will go," said Payraii. "All I
ask is the authority of this board."

" That you most assui'cdly have," replied the Com-
mittee-man; a sentiment which his fellow-mendiers
immediately continned. " But beware I there is danger
in it; the child was not taken to be given up for the
asking."

" Trust me," said Paj'ran. Arrived at iMarysville,
accompanied by the woman for purposes of proof and
identiHcation, he soon ascertained the whereabouts*
of the child. Without clis(X)vering himself to its ab-
ductors, he went (juietly round among the prominent
citizens of the place, stated the circumstances, and

PAYRAX AND WOODWORTII.

'247

informed thoin of his dotcrini nation. They warnud
him that, even if successful, his hfe sooner or hiter
must be paid as tlie price of his temerity. Assistance
was volunteered, but not sufficient for the purpt)se.
The authorities were, more than elsewiiere, pusillani-
mous. What was to be done ? Must lie return baffled,
to his associates, his expi'cssed assurance of success
an idle boast? Never I at all events not alive.

Most opportunely, after a discoura^inn,^ day, at the
hotel where he was sto[)pin<jf there ai'rived some
twenty miners, long, lusty I'ell )ws, with bi<^ hearts
and bushy heads, en route for home.

It was just the material lor the [>urpose. Returnint^
to eivilization in the heyday of success, their muscles
well strung', their hearts jjHable, and their (^motions
easily excited, to those twentv rou<»;h diiXLTcrs Pavran
had but to state the object of his mission, when twenty
bii;- round oatlis ple(i,i»'ed twenty honest lives to sniMsh
the t(»wn, if necessary; at all events to sim.' Pay ran
tliroui*'h. Just liefore the boat was ready to ^;tart
they sliouldered their packs, and demanded to be
shown the child. Proceeding in a body to the house
in which the girl was staying, Pavran and the
woman enten'd, and after some trouble smceeded in
getting the giil to the door. Then each man drawing
his revolver, they formed a hollow square, with the
Woman and hei' child in the centre. So they all
niarclunl down to the boat; and there wt)uld have
been hot and lively times in ^larysville that day had
any ])ersons Interfered.

Selim WiKxlwortli was more than man in some
thini^s and less than man in others. In certain di-
rections he seemed inspired with superhuman instincts
and superhuman energy, while in other ([uarters ho.
was but a bov. He was eminentlv a Lr<><>d fellow,
ojjcn of heart and countenance, and of tender sensi-
bilities— not exactly the material one would expect in
the captain of a band of stranglers — and it was these
qualities, perhaps, that gave him that air of boyishness

248

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF 1851.

which might easily be taken for effeminacy or a nature
trifling. But when it came to duty, suddenly all non-
sense disappeared, and strength and courage came in
all the glorious perfections of developed manhood. In
money matters he was the soul of honor. He hud
much trouble with the squatters, who persisted, like
flies about a carcass, in settling on a lot which he
owned where the Grand Hotel later stood.

Gcrritt W. Ryckman, the third president of the
association, was from Albany, New York. He came
to California in the steamer l/nicoi'u, arriving at San
Francisco the 30th October, 1849. I never saw in
any human being such reckless indifference to con-
sequences in regard to the penalties to which he
subjectea himself in participating in such a move-
ment as was manifest in Ryckman. He was well
advanced in vears when I first saw him; and though
his voice was often tremulous in our conversations,
his whole frame shook with indignant energy when
he talked of the threats and intimidations which were
constantly thrown at him. He possessed a wonderful
faculty for gaining the confidence of the accused, of
winning them over to make a free confession of tiieir
guilt, and that without committing himself by promise
of pardon or otherwise. The very frankness of his
deep determination was contagious. "I will tell you,
Mr Ryckman," said one poor fellow to him, " for I know
you will do right; but all hell couldn't open my mouth
to those others." His very presence inspired faith
and invited confidence. His broad face and truthful
searching eye; his features, massive with weighty
purpose and benignant rectitude; his voice low, kind,
but resolute ; his step, his bearing, all were indicative
of candor, singleness of heart, and conscientiousness,
obdurate, but sympathetic and unsinful. Thus it was
that, while he hanged these men, they not only feared
and respected him, but they almost loved him. If
Mr Ryckman had the say about it, they felt in some
way they would be freed; and yet this kind inquisitor

OERRITT W. RYCKMAN.

240

of theirs was usually the first to tell them they de-
served to hang, and should be hanged.

Often a friendly criminal has warned him: ** Have
a care, Mr Ryckman; keep your house at night, and
take the middle of tho street when you walk to it;
there are more than one in this town who have sworn
to kill you." "Do not be troubled," he would reply;
" I have no fear. There is not one of them would
kill me if he could. I know it; and I would trust my
life as freely among them as elsewhere. They know
that what I do is right; that I bear them no malice;
that I would do every one of them good; but they
must stop stealing, and burning, and butchering, or I
shall stop their breath as sure as God made me."

Ryckman's method of interviewing prisoners is
worthy of notice. Throwing into his manner an air
of confidential yet dignified familiarity, he approached
the culprit and opened tho conversation with what-
ever topic he judged might lie nearest the hearer's
lieart. He would ask him of his former days, of his
birth, parentage, and childhood ; of his struggles with
fi)rtune, his successes, his failures; of his companions,
his loves, and hates. Had he a wife, or children?
when did he come to California, and what business
(lid he first engage in here? what led him to a life of
crime, and who were his associates? Accompanying
liis skilful probing with that soothing sympathy which
was in truth part of his nature, bc^fore he had pro-
ceeded fiir, the poor, bruised, heart-broken wretch was
ready, nay eager, to tell him all. Miglit not this
l»luft' but kind-hearted old man become his friend?
might he not help him in his sore distress^ might he
not save him, at least from death? No bad man
thinks himself so bad as to be utterly unworthy of
sympathy and assistance. How they would beseech
him and cling to him for these! And when lie offered
to write to friends, to forward money or- effects, to
perform any act of Christian charity — which commis-
sions were always executed to the letter — brute cour-

3S0

THK KXRCrnVK COMMITTKK OF ISr.l.

aj(c' and bravadci, if indeed tlu^v l»ad held out m<i loiijjj,
^ave way, and the abandoned of his fellows often wept
like a child. So, too, almost eviry one condemned,
when he saw the chain of testimony was so complete
against him, confessed and signed his confession.

While in active service ^lr Ryckman devoted al-
most his entire time to the work of the C'ommittee.
During the nine months from the first of Juno he
devoted scarcely five full days to his own j)riviite
business. More than once he was dogged about the
streets by those who had threatened to assassinate
him, but he never was for a moment off' his guard.
Sometimes he would walk straight up to the scoun-
drels and warn them to leave the city instantly, and
they usually obeyed. They were much more afraid
of him than was he of them. He had a way of dis-
guising himself and mingling with them, and then
suddi lily discovering himself.

Mr liyckman did not regard the new organization
in 185(! with favor. Perhaps a tinge of jealousy col-
ored its character in his eyes. Or it may be, lilce
Robespierre, his willingness to participate in capital
punishments increased with age. But society had
changed since 1851, and in I Haft a new element, with
new leaders, marshalled to the front. "The Vigilance
Committee of '5G assumed to be the vigilance of '51,"
he said to me one day, "but it was not. They came to
me to join them and bring the old colors, but I would
do neither. I went down to one of their meetings, and
I told them they needed some one to govern them
instead of their assuming the jjovcrnment of others.
I got out of patience with their silky, milky way
of managing Terry's case. He ought to have been
hanged. I rebuked Coleman very, severely for some
timid act in the '5G Committee."

Mr Isjiac Bluxome junior possessed a warm heart
and most genial disposition. Amidst an assembly of
jovial companions, his face beaming with good humor
and the fun-wrinkles radiating from his eyes, he was

ISAAC BLUXOMK.

251

the liist person a stranjLJt!!' would take for a ' sti'ant^lor/
UH they of law and order delighted to call the men of
vij^ilance. Maliee was a stranger to iiis heart; no
hatred toward his fellow-men was harhored in his
hreast. In all that solenm assembly of resolute men
there was not one who in sincere pity for the poor
fellow about to suffer lor his crinujs excelled him
whose duty it was to write the death-warrant.

I knew him well, ^lany an evening have T sat
and listened far into the night to his graphic descrip-
tion of those most stirring days; at which times his
whole being seemed ablaze with brilliant memories.
All! when one's very self is staked on high achieve-
ment, and one lives to see the unselHsh effort an
accomplished fact, who would wish to smother the
glow of proud enthusiasm that follows I

I say that Bluxome was the high-[)i'iest of good
fellows, for I have tasted his eom[)anionsliip. But this
was not the dominant (juality of his character. His
whole nature was instinct with stubborn rectitude.
Althougli there nevei' Ilitted in my presence one
gleam t)f vindictiven;3ss across his features, I have
seen at some cloudy rememljrance tlie Hush of min-
gled pride and pleasure fade from the face, and the
glow of kindly fire sink from the outer eye into some
unknown depths within, and in their place a fixed
and solid stare of inexorable purpose, such as would
palsy the tongue of any guilty suppliant. ^lore than
life lie loved the right, and he alone who sacrilegiously
offended it he accounted his enemy. Yet in arriving
at conclusions he was most cool, most compassionate.
He would not be hurried in forming an opinion. Said
a hot-headed member to him (^nc day : " Bluxome, you
are on the off side of everything. I believe you are
afraid to hang a man !" " Sir," was the reply, " my seat
is always at the disposal of this Committee; but while
I occupy it, the man does not live who by fair speech
or innuendo can move me one hair's breadth from
what I deem my duty."

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF 1851.

At the time of the first Committee he was younj^,
ardent, active. Now you would find him acting in
his official capacity, then off on some thief- hunting
expedition, or on board a newly arrived vessel ex-
amining the passengers, and again looking after the
detail of his ponderous knave-destroying machinery,
and to the comfort of his associates. Says quaint old
President Payran: "Our worthy secretary,!. Bluxorae
junior, has given much time and attention to the re-
arrangement of our committee rooms; to him the
sub-committee feel much indebted, and recommend
that the thanks of the executive committee be ten-
dered him." Bluxome was an efficient member of
the Committee before he was chosen secretary. The
multitude of complaints made before the Committee
by all sorts of persons required much time and great
discrimination in the disposal of them. The large
mass of evidence drawn from witnesses in their ex-
aminations, and from officers and members on duty,
A\liich I liave been compelled to examine, tlirows much
light on the spirit and intent of the association ; wliilo
the reports of special committees, descriptions <•!' un-
caught felons, and the confessions of prisoners sliow
with what zeal and conscientic^usness the executive
committee performed their duties. Often the name
of each member of a disreputable family was ascer-
tained, and the age and personal appeai'ance of sus-
pected individuals were kept constantly befon; the
eyes of the vigilant detectives. The plaices of resort
of everv notable offender were known to tlie Com-
mittee, their habits were studied, and their move-
ments watched, so that they might be forthcoming
when wanted.

During the ]ieriod from the organization of the
Committee in June, 1851, till the 30th of June, 18.')2,
under which date the last entry is made in the book
of proceedings, there was constant communication
with country committees, and a general watchfulness
maintained in every quarter. Suits and demands for

PROCEEDINGS.

)2,
)ok
ion

CSS

for

dainaj^es and reclamations were instituted, to defend
wliich t)io ablest counsel was employed. To atteni|)t
the punishment of one of the mcnihers of the Coni-
niittec, as sueli, was to < )ffeud all. It made no ( Hlferonce
a,i,'ainst whom the suit was brought, if its oiiL,^in was
ihrousfli aiiv act of the Connnittee, or of any member
authorized so to act, the cause was made common, and
all ex[)(nses of defence or damages were defrayed by
tlie Committee. Neither was there over any attcnipt
in matters personal t<^ the (^ommittee to disregai'ii the
law, or to trivit the mandates of the courts with in-
dilference or contempt. The ( "ommittoL' fully I'econ"-
nized the sovereiLMitv of law in the settlement of iill
disputes; it was only in criminal cases, of interest
alil.e to every memb(n- of society, that the Connnittee
tool; cognizance.

While till' ablest members of the legal iVaternily
were unable, oi' alfected to be unabh', to comprehend
the sc()}>e and s[)irit of the Conunitt(je, it is hardly to
be wondered that the more sim[>)e-minded should so
far mistake its meaning as to look Ibi- miracles. Xuni-
berless wei'c the instances of application for rcdre.vs
w hich would have balUed the soUaie credulity oi' J.)on
(Quixote. It would seem there had arisen a tribunal
that should right every wi'ong, heal wounded spirits,
and minister to minds diseased. One applied to have
a squatter driven olf his lot ; anoiher wanted a doctor
hanged for poisoning a j>'.iient with medicine;; a dozen
asked to have their debis coll(>cted; and one wrpte
from .^^okelumne Hill, furious at a certain .lames
Wat kins, whom he regarded a lit subject for treat-
ment bv the Committee because he had insulted his
wife:

At a general meeting held in July, I Hal, it was
a'-reod that thereaftv'* the i»-eneral connnittee should
convene the tirst ^[ondays of March and September
in each year, and at such other times as they should
he called together by two taps of the bell, or by j)ub-
llshed notice signed by the president and secretary

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF 1851.

of the executive committee. No person whose dues
were in arrears twenty days should be entitled to
admission. The executive committee should have
j)()wer to order and make arrests; to levy assess-
ments; to make or change by-laws; to appoint officers;
to try prisoners. All testimony at trials must bo
taken in writing, and a .synopsis of it read at tlie first
general meeting. Such testimony, or any other paper
or book belonginfj to the Committee, should not be
mutilated or destroyed, but placed in the hands of
the secretary for preservation.

ill

CHAPTER XVII.

VIGILANCE BECOMES A POWER.

God gives manliood but one clew to success, — utter and exact justice;
tliat lie guarantees shall be always expediency.

Wendell PIMlps.

Silently the self-protective force, lonijj clonnaiit in
the hody s u-iul, now drew round the rooms of the
Vigilance C-oininittee the order-loving [)eople of San
Francisco. Tlie action of crime upon progressional
industry had jiroduced a friction, of which was en-

geiu ^ I* ! an electrical movement as natural and subtle
as any itisplayed hy the contendinji;' forces that play
upon the destinies of matter. The afHnitii's and
affiliations inherent in elemental |)articles throughout
the universe were manifest in this U])rising, and as
well might puny man ho])e to arrest the moNcment
of heavenly bodies by the enactment of laws antago-
nistic to the primary laws of attraction and repulsion
as to stitle the natui'al im])ulses of a crime -ridden
people by an appeal to the sacredness of statutes.

Although the law in this instance was comfortably
tractable and well behavi-d, there was not lacking that
healthful op})osition which in social dynamics con-
stitutes the true strength of every reformatory move-
ment. A religious reformation or a political revoluticju
without opposition, were such a thing possil)Ie, would
be a tame atJ'aii-. In the war on evil, as in all war,
the str(>ngth of the reformatory party is in some de-
gree measured by the strength of the opposition; <Iuit
is to say, in the upheavals of society the strength
employed by the overturning element is in j)roportion
to the force to be overturned. Tliere was here just

(255)

i i

» ■

mt VIGILANCE BKCOMKS A POWER.

enougli of strength in the law, and in the noisy qimxi
prfttectors of the (hgnity of law, to hand the peojde
Himly and cause them to w^alk warily.

It was an unusual siglit, the (luirt midnight triiil
and execution of Jenkins, half the city asleep wliilc
the other half were rallying to the assistance of im-
potent law. It can hardly he laid to their charge that
they acted hastily, or in a vengeful or hlood-thirsty
manner. 1'wvnty lives and millions of property had
been destn^yed at the last tire, which was only one >A'
the nuiuy successful attempts of these hold villains to
burn the young city, and ruin the industries and com-
merce of its inhabitants. One or the other now nnist
rule; one or the other must now retina. Long and
patiently th(>v liad waited on law, but law brought
them no relief. A eommitt(>e of [)ul»lic safiity was
demanded by the j)eople, and the\ wlio iianged Jenkins
were earnestly i-i'(juested not to st()[> tiiere, but to
follow uj) the work so well begun. The necessity
whi<"h compelh'd the {\^h'A to be dcMie in darkness was
deplored, imt th*; proceedings were fully justified hv
the j>ress and the ])eo]>le. A lai'ge mass-meeting was
hekl on the plaza tln^ night following, in which the
citizens warv. urged to enroll themselves into a oom-
mitt(>e of safety, and thi> [)roceedings of the night pre-
vious were ratified. Tct anoiher nK;vting was held the
next night, more boisterous than the former. The
opposition at one time gained possession o^' the stan<l,
but in their turn were drivijin from it by the reformers.
There was nuich needl(»ss speech-making an<;l seutiiing,
and tlie proceiMbnirs were not reo'arded with favor bv
the lo\'ers of ht,'altliy reform.

These two demonstratyions of popular unrest were
without (umcerted aim or defined itction. The lirst
was held on WednescUiy evening, and a<ljourne'd to
the following aft(n'noon. Hotli were larg"ly atten<led.
Various opiuioi'N wei'e (ixpr'e.s.seil as to the latt> sum-
mary j)rocee( lings, l>ut there was a large majority in
favor of su.staininiif the action of tlu; Committee. At

THE ROWDY ELEMENT.

2.-.7

tliesu gatherings David C Brcxlevick, hacked hy his
rough retainers, appeared as the champion ol' law and
order. The vigilant party attempted to otter resolu-
tions in support of the movement, whicli l^rodorick
determined to defeat. There was hut one way to
accomplish the ])urpose, whicli was to hreak up the
assemhly; and Ih'oderick did not for a moment hesi-
tate to resort to such means. Once, wlien the ayes
and noes were called, tlie J»j'od<-i"ick ])arty claimed the
vote, which being justly denit-d them, they made a
lush at the speaker's stand, ami raised a great uproar.
Such meetings were wholly uncalled for, and could
not well be jtroductive of beneficial results. Tliey
were com[)osed of that j)art of the p(»[tulation through
wlios-e dull l)rain tin; idea was just now finding its way
that somethino' must be done. Ei'-'ht thousand such
a|){>eared, who listened open-nioutlu'd to the rantings
<>1' demagogues, .vliile the Vig'danco Connnittee, tlie
real power, sjaietly kept its own counselj and ])ursued
its own way. Tlie cmduct of tlio opposition, howev(,'[-,
' "fibred vet another illustrutioji of their ?uanv para-
I lexical vvays, wherein thev Jioltl to one doctrine and
iiet another. It is the privilege of a, free people tn
gn an<l come at pleasure, to scatter abroad, (tr to cen-
•nvLjate in such i)lace and numbers as thev deem fit ;
and so long as neither treason nor violence is in-
ihilged in. ui'ither magistrate nor [lolice ca?: prevent
ihem. .\gain and again tin' men of law backed tluir
aiiiuments a«j;aiust lawlessness by lawless dei'ds; and
if, b}' v'le hard practical sense of tiie great unsanctified,.
their vvind-bags of logic were pricked, a martyr's woe
tlou'iated their visaire.

While the trial of Jenkins was yet in progress
luany of the best men stepped forward and enrolled
themselves members of the association, and after his
«;xocution the numbers rapidly swelled. On the 11th
of .Tune the Vigilance Committee did not number
• >ver one hundred, but immediately after its nund)ers
iticreased t(» fi\e lujudred, one hundred c»f whom were,

Poi'. TuiH , Vol.. I. 1"

1258

VIGILANCE BECOMES A POWER.

Oil duty day and night. The orgaaization was com-
plete and effective; their purpc-se was pursued noise-
lessl}'^ and thoroughly. A fortnight had not elapsed
before an entire change was noticed in the state of
society. The arm of crime was palsied; an invisible
not-work was woven round evil-doers. The vigilance
of this new-born justice was sleepless; its jurisdiction
extended to all classes and crimes and its agents were
silent and ubiquitous. Frequent meetings were held,
in which work was ufiven out, and no scoundrel miLrhl
know when a member of the association was at liis
elbow. Cool circums[)ection, earnestness, and energy
<;Iiafacterized all the movements of the Committee.
Facts coiiceniing criminals were entered as collected
in a book ke|>t for that purpose. Among other good
■works, the Committee undertook to complete tin*
county prison then in progress of construction, but
delayed for want of funds. Each of the five hundi'ecl
mend)ers was made responsible for the collection of'
thirty dollars, thus securing instantly the fifteen
thousand dollars lacking to finish the building.

Meanwhile inunigration continued to [)our in the bad
#'lfment, and ■ ro long rascality began again to lift its
\h-,u\. CoM l);i/f not yet been discovered in Australia,
and wiieu the fanx' of Califo)'nia reached those sliores
e\ury effort was mad*- to escape i'rom the penal colo
nies of (Ireat Jh-itain. SI ii[» masters were ready t<>
take any who would [)ay. Many who had no mean>
.shipped as sailoi's, and on airival escaj)ed; and so i»y
divers ways hordes managed to com*'. Sydneytown
was now watched by day and patrolli-d by night, ainl
tlie j)assengers and crews of newly arrived vesseK
we.e carefully examined. A ship hatl arrived eai'l\
in May with a large load of convicts, some of them
with shaved heads. The craft had no port clearan* e.
which indicated that her passengers were suiuggl< d
on board. The Conmiittee determined to put an eml
to such traffic.

UNDESIRABLE IMMIGRATION.

2o9

In the California Courier of June IGth the editor
writes :

"All our information from Sydney and other British colonics in the
Vacifio informs us that a general disposition exists to prevent further coloni-
zation there of the convicts of Great Britain, and to rid themselves of those
already in the colonies. C)\ving to this feeling great willingness exists on the
part of the public autlioi'ities uf those colonies to aid iik the trau8]>ortation of
tliat class of puoph.*, and as California ofi'ers the most tempting inducements
for these convicts to expatriate themselves, we are likely to get tlie luavicst
portion of this most degraded population. If the British colonics of the
Pacific are to lie simply tiio place where the convicts fronj Great Britain are
to 1)0 temporarily di.scm harked, merely to be reshipped to this part of the
United Stat(33, (.'alifornia will in the future become the B(jtany liay for all
liiT criminal population. The emigration from Sydney during the past month
t 1 California has exceeded in number the emigration from all the Atlantic
Ntates of this Uinon for the same period. This i.i not a declaration made at
random, but is made from actual arrivals at- this l>ort, and tliis population is
likely to increase monthly to an extent ecjual to the past mouth. Evidently
licretofore they have been able to burn down the city over our hcad-s some
four or live times, destroying some thirty lives and property to the amount of
at least .?2,0{X),()00. When caught, through their accomplices, they have suc-
'•cedod in swearing through the courts, toajjain nin at large, and rojieat their
deeds of darkness and crime with ecpial avidity and boldness. They arc
organized into gangs, and have their regular stores, hiding-i>laces, and out-
posts. We caiuiot resist them by the .slov.- process of law. We nnist,
therefore, when Me catch tnem committing burglary, theft, murder, ur arson,
iiang them up. If California is to be selected by Great Britain and her
Ih'itis colonies as the habitation of her convicts, we will soon teach her and
licr dependencies that they are mistaken."

The bark Cliicf entered the luirboi" of San Fran-
cisco tlie 14th of June with fifteen passenger.s from
Sydney. Only one liad a eertificate from tlie Ameri-
can consul, and the rest were believed to ])e convicts.
(^l)jections wore made to their landing, but certain
I'espectable citizens vouched for them, and they were
permitted to come ashore. The next day a vessel
arrived witlv five passenjjjers, four of whom were
women. Even the cfrim-visaffcd tribunal in those
days was too gallant to raise its front against un-
l»rotected woman, though she were a little tainted.
Skirted humanity was then too scarce to deny it
entrance on the ground of badness; so the Sydney
sisters were permitted to land. But much as the

200

vigila\(;e BECo^rEs a power.

It i

c'tnuitiy needed the salt of women, u little of such
seasoning went far. Some of the conviets thus ar-
rivin;^ had even been ;.^rauted their liberty on condi-
tion that they would leave those parts and not return
to England. As we have seen, the Conunittee now
assumed a permanent character. The duties of mem-
bers, tlie times ,>f meeting, the order of proceedings,
and the crimes of wliieh it was to take cognizanee,
wei-e more d..imed. Theft and murder occupied its
chief attention, l»nt idlers and suspected persons were
narrowly watelied. For a time the one hundivd
mend)ei's mentioned were sufficient in the field; and
these spent day and ni<;ht ]uintin<.c criminals, ferretinu;
infamy, in((uiring into the character and jturpose of
sus[ticious-looking persons, and bringing tliem before
tlie dread tribunid, whicji coiiM be convened at any
moment for any [)urpose by the signal -bell, stroke.
Puuisliments were gi'aduated according to the offence.
To the accused was always granted a trial if he desired
it, but notices to quit were sometimes given on well-
gi'ounded suspicion. The words employed on such
occasions were laconic, but most significant — thus:

" Jeukmv Didleu:

" You are warned to leave the city within fiv(; days.

" Uy order of TuE Committee ok Vkiilance.

" Xo. 07, SccreCary."

If this warning was passed unheeded, the person
so served was arrested and shipped to Australia oi'
some other foreign })ort. The executive; committee
was neither responsible to nor hampered by any other
earthly [)ower; it brought its own charges, made its
own examinations, and executed its own decrees.
Through its instrumentality some were hanged, mniiy
were publicly whipped, and many more banished the
city. Thus San Francisco was for a short time almost
free from i)rofessional rogues and s(H)undrels. The
vigilant polici- boarded vessels arriving from Sydney,

THE SYSTEM PERFECTED.

•261

and every passenger was sulnjected to tlie most rii^nd
scrutiny. On board were always respectable persons
enough to testify against such disreputable characters
as may have been their vorniKignons dc roi/otjc.

To avoid impositions, and at the same tinie to
secure immediate attention, all notices to quit were
served V)y a sub-committee of three or more members,
and were never sent by a messjenger or through the
mail. Herewith T give ii f(ic-si)ni(c of a report of the
Committee in a case of exile.

On one occasion in June certain so-called respect-
able lawyers, of perhaps not too translucent con-
sciences, were startled by what jnirported to be orders
I'lom the inquisition to leave their country for tlu ir
ciuintry's good. The Committee was first of all in
its endeavor to ferret these forgers.

If the convicts thus arrested by the Committee
and onlered back bv vessels ijoinfj to Australia had
money of their own, their fare was paid out of it b}-
tlie Committee. If they had any efl'ects which could
bc> sold, their passage money was raised in that way.
if j)ossessed of nothing, the CVmnnittee paid the
jiassage.

The Committee were anxious so far as possible to
avoid the taking of life, but preferred resorting to
l>;uiishment or minor corporal punishment as a penalty
lor crime. Thus during the active operations of this
( ommittee there were about thirty persons, most of
them from Sydney or other British colonies, sent
from the countrv, nearly all bein*^ returned to the
l>laces whence they came.

The citizens of San Franchisee in their first Vigil-
ance Committee claimed the most perfect and power-
I'ul organizntion hitherto established in any ('ountry
lor the guarding of the public weal. It was as much
;• part of their self-imposed duty to prevent the
coming to the country of new malefactors as to expel
old offenders, and this required sleepless watchfulness
and a detective police systematized with no small

VIGILANCE BECOMES A POWER.

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skill. The iv<jjular police wei'e resij^niiij^ one after
another from lack of pay for their services. The
courts needed purifying and energizing; honest judges
were proverbially incapable, the capable were dishon-
est, and it was no rare occurrence to see both knave
and fool written upon the face of one single oecui)anfc
of the judgment-seat. Legislators were likewise to
be reformed. In the last leufislature the San Fran-
cisco representatives were far below the country
members in honesty and intelligence. The numbers,
wealth, influence, and energy of the Vigilance Com-
mittee gave it almost unlimited power, antl to its
honor be it said, that power wns always used with
calmness, mercy, and moderation. Punishment fol-
lowed closely the heels of crime, and villainy and
vaijabon«lai;e slunk away. Some of the l)ad characters
sought health in the country, some turned honest
miners; many preferred to put leagues of ocean be-
tween them and this new species of justice. Tliis
unheard of trampling on the rights of villains, tliis
closing (jf their time-honored avenues of escape, this
overthrow of legal fogyism, and the application of
common-sense to the rulers of justice, was like an
epidemic fatal to evil-doers. Law and order, a fat
judiciary, and un inefficient police were to them far
preferable to a hand-to-hand contlict with aroused and
indignant virtue.

The action of the people in the executicm of Jeidvins
was generally sustained by the [)ress and by the i)ulpit.
The Reverends Wheeler and Hunt, of re[)resentative
churches, both preached sermons upholding the vigil-
ant organization.

Says the Courier the 1 7th of June:

"To show how we arc uwindlcd out of our mcuutj by rogues, and liow the
rogues escape punishment, we give the following instance : A man by tho
name of George Spiers many months since was taken up for highway robbery.
The recorder considered the proof sc print-blank that he committed him.
His case was carried before the grand jury, where ho was indicted by tho
clearest testimony. In fact ho was caught in tho act. His trial, however,
was postponed session after session, until the witnesses left the city, if not

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264

VIGILANCE BECOMES A POWER.

the state. The consequence was that when he was brought up for trial there
was no one to testify against him. The district attorney, therefore, entered
in his case a nolle prosequi, and the prison doors were opened, and he left his
coniinenient to prey again upon the public.

"A few weeks since lie was arrested on the chai'ge of murder. He was
placed in confinement on the most unquestionable proof of his guilt. The late
grand jury, which unfortunately has been declared as illegally impanelled,
indicted him for murder on the most reliable evidence. But this indictment,
it appears, will amount to nothing. The last steamer carried away the only
witness who can prove his guilt and convict him of the crime of murder. Of
course our grand jury can never find a bill against him, and he will be per-
mitted to run at large again. In this way felons escape, through the law's
delay, to rob and murder us, and bum down ouv houses for the purpose of
plunder. With all these facts staring us in the face we are told that we must
permit the law to take its course — let criminal lawyers make from these crimi-
nals all they can, and give the felons opportunity to escape. We trust the
people will be fooled and deceived no longer, but that they will execute with-
out delay summary vengeance on every man the moment he is caught in the
act of robbing, burning houses, or murdering. By so doing we will teach all
public otfenders that we will visit them with immediate death, and the courts
that we have had enough of the law's delay."

"We should address ourselves to the task of puri-
fying the courts," writes the editor of the Herald the
same day. "Surely no new country ever exhibited
such a judiciary."

" It is true," says the Pacific Star of the 25th, "that
the power claimed and exercised by this Committee
may be nbused. So may all human power. The courts
may abuse their power; the police theirs; and yet
this is not a sufficient reason for withholding all power
from them. Our reliance is in the honesty and integ-
rity of the men who compose the Committee."

Again the Herald ot June 21st panegyrizes the
people:

"We must declare tliat never have we heard or read of an organization
more thoroughly effective, an association of men so grandly successful in the
object of their combination, as have been the Committee of Vigilance of this
city. Pursuing their purpose noiselessly, earnestly, and unremittingly, they
have effected in twelve days what the courts during the whole of their
existence, armed with the thunderbolts of the law, have never been able to
accomplish. They have palsied the hand of the assassin and the incendiary,
and have encircled the criminals, who publicly defied the law, with a net- work
from which all their efi'orts will not enable them to escape. Their vigilance
never sleeps. Their investigations embrace all classes. Their agents are

NEW QUARTERS.

2B5

invisible and ubiquitous. The cribs wliich have been the nightly rendezvous
and daily lurking-places of thieves of every description are all marked, and
have received or will receive notice that their nefarious practices will not be
longer tolerated. The most notorious scoundrels are ordered to leave the
country, and many more are being watched for the purpose of being more
thoroughly detected. Criminal correspondence and connection have been
traced to men hitherto occupying respectable positions in society, and their
exposure has been delayed merely to give time for the accumulation of proof
or for their departure from the country. In fine the association have con-
ducted their measures for the protection of the public safety with a cool
circumspection, au earnestness, daring, and energy, that must command
respect and even admiration. They now number over four hundred of the
best men in the city. One fourth of this force is constantly on duty day and
night, and each particular member seems to have devoted himself to the dis-
charge of his duty with an enlightened zeal that has produced the most sur-
prising results. The testimony already collected fills a large volume, and
has occupied the exclusive attention of one man in transcribing. The Com-
mittee commenced with making a notable and severe example. It had the
effect of proving that they were in earnest in the prosecution of the work
tliey had undertaken. Since that time they have been employed in bringing
to light the various places of resort of the criminals still at large. A largo
number of these cribs, as they are called, have been discovered, and after
being duly warned have been closed."

It will be noticed that the editor speaks at random
with regard to some of his facts, but in sentiment he is
right. Their quarters in Brannan's buildings, corner
of Bush and Sansome streets, being inadequate for the
accommodation of their increased numbers, the Com-
mittee secured from Bullitt, Patrick, and Dow, the
upper rooms of two large frame buildings on Battery
street, between California and Pine streets. These
were thrown into one and fitted up for the meetings
of the general body, and separate rooms were parti-
tioned for the smaller committees. The cost of
alterations and furnishing was about one thousand
dollars, and the rent was four hundred dollars a month.
The Committee began to occupy these rooms the 1 8th
of June, though the carpenters did not complete their
work before the 25th. Of the sub-committee rooms
there were four, furnished with tables, speakers' desks,
chairs, and benches. Heavy bolts were put upon
the doors, bells hung, and writing material, hand-

266

VIGILANCE BECOMES A POWER.

cuffs, and chains supplied. There were also sleeping-
places for the watchmen arranged. The 18th of
September, when business had fallen off materially,
the Committee, in order to reduce their expenses,
again removed to the corner of Sansome and Sacra-
mento streets, to the premises of John Middleton,
where the rent was one hundred dollars a month. In
these rooms matting was put upon the floors, the walls
were papered, and the new quarters presented quite a
respectable appearance.

Signals were now arranged, and a committee ap-
pointed to wait on the foremen of the California
and Monumental fire-engine companies to ask the use
of their bells for the purpose of calling the members
together, to which request cordial assent was given.
I shall speak at length heieafter of the committees
of vigilance, modelled after the San Francisco Com-
mittee, which were established throughout California.

At this time it was difiicult — so the defenders of
criminals at all events made it appear — to obtain
respectable jurors to sit in court cases, on the ground
of sympathy with the vigilance movement. From tlu3
stand-point of to-day it strikes one as a little singular
that the law should reject respectable men as jurors
on the ground of their sympathy with justice. More
particularly is the inconsistency of the thing apparent
when we reflect that by every blandishment the men
of vigilance had been urged to trust the courts, to
act as aids and auxiliaries to the courts, and that when
summoned to sit in judgment on such cases as thoy
did leave to the courts they were told that they could
not render an impartial decision. That such objections
were made by the defence, rather than by the prose-
cution, is prima fctcie evidence that the objectors
sought safety under cover of the law's subtleties, and
for further defeating the ends of justice.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ENTER JAMES STUART.

The most stormy ebullitions of passion, from blasphemy to murder, are
less terrific than one single act of cwA villainy; a still rabies is more
dangerous than the paroxysms of a fever. Fear the boisterous savage of
passion less than the sedately grinning villain.

LavcUer.

James Stuart was a villain. A great villain. He
was born a villain; he achieved villainy; and if vil-
lainy was not thrust upon him, he had no hesitation
in thrusting it upon others. His childhood was in-
stinct with misbehavior. Every wickedness the human
heart is heir to has its redeeming quality. Through
mismanagement on the part of nature all the virtues
intended for use in the manufacture of James Stuart
fell into the composition of some other mortal. There
are gentle knaves and there are scurvy knaves ; James
Stuart was of the latter class. There are magnificent
scoundrels and there are mean scoundrels; James
Stuart belonged to the latter category. He was a
lusuii naturcB of the sulphurous order. His rascality
was of the cold and calculating kind. All men were
his friends, and all his foes. He would sacrifice a
comrade as quickly as an enemy; with the utmost
nonchalance he would see innocent Thomas Burdue
suffer agonies of torture, for crimes which he himself
had committed.

Often vice is only the decadence of some virtue;
but in James Stuart obduracy and atrocity were
weeds of indigenous growth. Such was the alchemy
of his constitution that those ennobling influences in-
cident to every environment, when infused in him,

(267)

268

ENTER JAMES STUART.

putrefi' d and infected the atmosphere in which he
moved hke a disease. Socrates had his Xenophon,
Johnson his Boswell; but woe to the historian, aban-
doned of heaven, who must needs dive into the depths
to chronicle the deeds of this most graceless of mis-
creants! One becomes as tired of his malefactions as
were the Athenians of hearing Aristides called the
Just.

Between mala in se or intrinsic badness, and mala
prohihita or violation of conventionalisms, few make
proper distinction. Indeed, there are many good men
and women who will forgive a crime against morality
sooner than a violation of good breeding. For the
saintly caitiff hides his misbehavior beneath a fair
complexion; with ill-gotten gains he buys honors and
influence, and while indulging in low immoralities
fails not to assume the character which will secure
him further grovelling gratifications. In all this
there is little of that ideal justice of which poets
sing, wherein the good are always happy and the
evil-minded unsuccessful. Religion fails to enforce
correct conduct, and reason is not yet strong enough
wholly to practise a utilitarian code of ethics. Differ-
ent men, and ages, and beliefs, derive their rules of
conduct from different sources. Conscience-making
trade the gods find dull as the vision of

as a

science grows stronger. We of to-day seem near
completing the circle of morality, seem to be nearing
the point the savage started from, and referring back
all obligation to the law of nature. The divine law
of the ecclesiastic, the patriarchal law of the house-
hold, and the political law of society, however they
may retain their hold on personal conduct, fetter
mind far less than formerly.

Saint Paul found himself amidst a whirlpool of
opposing forces, fleshly laws rising within him antago-
nistic to spiritual laws, the law of his members warring
against the higher law of mind. James Stuart like-
wise found his unworthy craft buffeted by winds of

SKILLED VILLAINY.

260

doctrine strange m Sydney. The law that should hang
Burdue in his place he could understand; he liked
that. The regular course of things, the common statu-
tory currents and legislative trade-winds, he could sail
safely enough before; but these disinheriting guardi-
ans of political pets, of children of the corporation;
these men of vigilance, who interpose their uncivil
veto to the regular course of criminal law, what shall
be said of them? They were, indeed, a flat imposition.

Stuart was not only able, but talented. A very
mean man is seldom weak ; more genius, more strength
of character is necessary in order to become a great
bad man than a great good man. The greater the
cunning of thieves, the greater the skill required by
the police. As civilization seems to intensify and
render more acute absurdity and error, as well as
reason and right, so the tendency of organisms, as
they become more complex and refined, seems to in-
crease in their capabilities of catching and eating, and
in avoidinq: beinjf caujjht and eaten.

Early in Juiy, before the Burdue-Stuart mystery
was fairly solved, the Vigilance Committee of San
Francisco wrote the Viq-ilance Committee of Marvs-
ville that in their opinion Burdue was innocent. The
Marysville Committee could not believe it, and begged
tlio San Francisco Committee to take no steps which
might load to the letting loose of a murderer upon
the community. Thereupon the San Francisco Com-
mittee despatched a messenger to Marysville to ask
suspension of further action until the case could be
thoroughly investigated. Francis Land, counsel for
the condemned, proceeded to San Francisco for infor-
mation. These several investigations were not with-
out their effect upon the court. A new trial being
granted, a nolle prosequi was entered. Burdue was
discharged from the Marysville court and brought to
San Francisco in the early part of August. There
he was lodged in prison. On the 25th of August,
after the evidence of Stuart and Whitaker had been

270

ENTER JAMES STUABT.

given, Frederick Woodworth, George Melius, Isaac
Bluxome junior, and John F. Spence made affidavit
before Ned McGowan, judge, of the fact that Burdue
was innocent of the charges preferred against him.
Thereupon an order was made by the district court,
transferring the case to the court of sessions, into
which Burdue was brought; the same day and dis-
charged from custody.

While Thomas Burdue was yet in San Francisco
undergoing trial for the robbery of Jansen, that is to
say, on the 28th of February, 1851, Frank M. Pixley
came forward and made oath that the prisoner was
not James Stuart, whom he had defended on several
occasions, and whom he ought to know. Although this
did not satisfy the court and jury sufficiently to secure
Burdue's discharge, it made a mystery of the matter,
and so excited suspicions of the possible innocence of
Burdue that certain members of the Vigilance Com-
mittee determined to ferret the affair;

The shortest way to this end was to secure the
person of the Sacramento shop -breaker, the Foster
Bar murderer, the robber of Dodge, and the convict
of the Sacramento prison brig — to secure the person
of him who had committed these crimes, whosoever
that might be ; for at the same time that Mr Pixley
swore Burdue was not the Stuart of these exploits,
Dr Holmes of Foster Bar, officer Trueman of Sacra-
mento, and others asserted that he was. Clearly
amidst all this conflict of evidence the only way to
solve the mystery was to find the real culprit. If
Burdue was not the felon, who was he, and where
was Stuart? Much depended upon the answer; the
life, perhaps, of an innocent man, and the escape of a
notorious offender.

Mr Pixley seemed to be the only one in San Fran-
cisco who was positive that Burdue was not Stvmrt,
though at the second trial there were a number in
Sacramento who were sure of it; and yet the j iry
convicted him. While Pixley did not scruple to clear

THE COURTS AWAKE.

»71

;er in
cloar

the guilty if he could, for of such his law told him
was its kingdom, yet he would not wittingly see the
innocent suffer. Therefore, while he would not say
or do anything which would implicate his client or
lead to his arrest, he did not hesitate solemnly and
positively to assure, not only the court but the Vigil-
ance Committee, that this prisoner was not guilty of
the crimes laid at his door.

Meanwhile the Marysville Vigilance Committee
were skeptical as to Burdue's innocence ; yet after the
trial, and while he was there lying in prison under
condemnation of death, the Marysville Committee
came out nobly in his behalf, and between the- two
committees no less than fifteen persons were found
who said that, whoever the prisoner might be, he was
not the renowned James Stuart. But the law, roused
from its lethargy by the murmurings of the people, was
determined on action. Many respectable members of
the commonwealth, advocating capital punishment,
had banded in every town to execute it. Now if they
wanted hanging done, the law could do it. So saitl
its officers from the beginning. The whole country
was excited on the subject; it was the thing to do to
shed some blood. The autumn elections were ap-
proaching, and the hanging judge would be the popu-
• lar candidate. Here was an opportunity too good to
be lost. This man has neither money nor friends;
even if he is not the guilty person, he ought to be
hanged for looking so much like him and mystifying
the court. Witnesses say that the real James Stuart
is five feet nine inches in height, while the prisoner is
but five feet six and three quarters inches; but then
sorrow and confinement are apt to cause shrinkage,
especially in one not guilty of the crime for which lie
is condemned. Besides, is it not better that an inno-
cent person should now and then be put to death than
that no example at all should be made? Thus within
itself might the law have communed, judging from
its actions.

272

ENTER JAMES STUART.

The San Francisco Committee were by this time
thoroughly convinced of the innocence of Burdue, and
tliey determined to redouble their exertions to f.nd
the real Stuart. They had his likeness in the unfor-
tunate Burdue; their police and patrols had but to
look upon him and then hunt Stuart. Country com-
mittees were placed in possession of the facts, and
were begged to lend their immediate aid to save
the innocent and bring to punishment the guilty. It
was probable that Stuart was in or near San Fran-
cisco. He could not have left the state unknown,
for every departure by water was watched, and lie
would scarcely travel overland, as the men of Sydney
seldom migrated far from seaport towns. Besides,
where would he find a better country, one richer in
stealings or more backward in punishment? Then,
too, by this time the acts of Stuart were so notorious,
and his person so well known from Yreka to San
Diego, that the only place at all tenantablc for him
was San Francisco. Therefore the sons of the Watch-
ful Eye were charged by their ciders to find the villain.

Wonderfully intricate are the ways that lead to
simple ends I Here is all the country hunting this
man, when one day he drops almost of his own accord
into the maw of the new patent crime -crusher, and
that for an offence which he did not commit. Honest
men wonder at the foolishness of shrewd scoundrels ;
but may not scoundrels with equal propriety wonder
at the foolishness of shrewd honest men?

Between ten and eleven o'clock on the morning
of July 2d a house at the Mission was entered and a
trunk abstracted. The owner, learning of his loss,
raised the alarm. Just then it was ascertained that
a tent on California -street hill, near where Grace
Church was afterward placed, had been robbed. Three
or four men set out in different directions in pursuit
of the thieves and for the recovery of the plunder.
They at once made their way up the hill and into the
chaparral. The bushy suburbs of San Francisco were

IN THE CHAPARRAL.

27X

and

at that time infested with thriftless and shiftless
human vermin. The town was not so large then as
now, and it offered less security before determined
search. The suburban districts, with their sand-hills
and hollows thickly matted with small trees and
bushes, beneath which, with a pair of blankets, ono
might safely and comfortably sleep away the summer,
wore the favorite resorts of thieves, who found iii
these quarters combined security and convenient prox-
imity to fields of enterprise. The quail and hare of
these parts were often surprised, and so occasionally
were the thieves, although it was a most difficult
place to hunt them in, as there were large patches of
undergrowth which neither horse nor man could easily
penetrate, and the surest way to investigate such spots
was by sending in a well trained dog.

Somewhere near what is now the corner of Powell
and California streets, some distance from the road
leading from the Mission to the city, the owner of
the lost trunk came upon one who excited his sus-
picions. He was first seen standing on a knoll, look-
ing toward the city; he hesitated for i moment, then
turned and hurried away in the opposite direction.
Calling to some carpenters who were at work on
tlie hill, the owner of the lost trunk briefly related
the circumstances and pointed to the stranger. To a
casual or unsuspicious observer it was an exceedingly
commonplace thing for workingmen of the city-
strolling in the suburbs to meet one who from his
dress might be a miner waiting for the sailing of the
steamer or for the arrival of his wife, or who might
be a country trader, or a ranchero, or any one of a .
dozen other respectable callings. The town was;
always full of honest strangers coming and going,
paying their way, and minding their own business.
In this instance the person suspected was wholly
innocent of the theft; and yet there was that about-
him which assured the workingmen that they had
found the one they sought; and the wanderer believedK

Pop. Trib.. Vol. I. 18

274

EXTER JAMES STUART.

II !

r?^|i

that they knew him, believed that his doom was
sealed. But defeat is the last thing a politician or a
thief will acknowledge to himself or to another.

Of medium height and symmetrical figure, with a
bright burning eye, hissing speech, and biting smile,
the stranger looked the accomplished reynard, which
indeed he was, except when called upon to act the
hungry hyena. Over a clean gray woollen shirt, cov-
ering also one of linen, he wore an English-cut coat,
well fitting light pantaloons tucked inside his boot-
tops, and a narrow-brimmed round-top hat. Fastened
to his belt, and covered by his coat, were a bowie-
knife and revolver of fine finish and in perfect order.
In his dress, carriage, and general appearance there
was that which, to a villain -hunter, immediately
stamped him as his prey.

Witness the windings of the game now played.
Here was a thief; so far the man who had lost his
trunk was right. But this was not the thief he
sought; of this the present guilty one was not aware.
Accompanied by one of the carpenters, the owner of
the lost trunk advanced and called to the man, who
turned and walked toward them.

" Good-day, stranger." ,

"Good-day."

"Do you live ab ut hero?"

^'No."

■*' What are you doing in this neighborhood?"

" I am on my way from the Mission to North
Beach."

" This is not the road. Two houses have been
robbed near by this morning. Where did you get
the clothes you have on?"

"What! the devil! Who are you?" exclaimed the
man, as his hand sought his revolver. But instantly
two cocked pistols were at his head, and further move-
ment of his hand behind him he well knew was death.
It was the custom then for mechanics as well as others
to carry pistols.

DUPLICITY.

975

was
or a

ith a
mile,
irhich
t the
, cov-

coat,
boot-
itened
)owie-
ordcr.

there
Uatcly

)layed.
jst his
icf he
aware.
rncv of
who

North

" I know nothing of your robbery," said the man,
as he threw up his handy. " Those clothes I have
worn ever since I left Sonora. I saw somebody with
u bundle but a moment since disappear over yonder
hill. I tell you I am not the one you seek."

" Listen to mc, my friend," said the Mission man.
"You say you have worn these clothes from Sonora,
and that you have walked some distance this morninj^.
That is not true. The weather is warm; the roads
arc dusty. Your boots are not sufficiently travel-
stained, your linen shirt is clean, and the woollen over-
sliirt you wear carries yet the creases of its original
folding. You must come with us ♦^o the rooms of
the Vigilance Committee, and if you ire an honest
man you have nothing to fear."

On the instant the course he ■ ^ould adopt uashed
upon the captured criminal, xiiere aro moments
when the future rises before the mind like Aladdin's
».v.stle; when the ordinary paths of life are so hedged
by untoward circumstarces that some supernatural
hound seems the only means of escape. Many were
implicated with him, and these might rally to his
rescue. Oftentimes before he had surmounted diffi-
culties apparently superior to this, had lain in prison
condemned to death, had stood beneath the gallows-
tree with the rope around his neck, the central figure
of an infuriated mob ; and yet he was alive, and but a
moment before free. At all events his present course
was plain to him.

" I have often heard of your famous Vigilance Com-
mittee," said he, with a smile of sardonic sweetness.
" I am anxious to see something of it, and will ac-
company you with pleasure."

Arrived at the committee room he gave his name
as Stevens; afterward he wrote it Stephens. Those
present recognized immediately the strange likeness
he bore to the condemned Burdue, and to the de-
scriptions of the infamous James Stuart. Mr Payran
was in attendance, and h^ questioned him. Payran

■ !

270

ENTER JAMES STUART.

prided himself on his catechetical abilities. He was
the Torque* r.ada of the San Francisco Inquisition;
and although in the exercise of the holy office he
applied to his victims neither fire, nor water, nor the
cord, yet as a rule lie managed in the end to obtain a
true confession, as I have said before. His test of
truth was only his own shrewd common -sense, dis-
crimination, and practical sagacity; and in his original
and searching analyses of criminal character he had
acquired a skill wliich seldom led him astray. It was
his custom first of all to hold a private conference
with his prisoner, during which he would talk with
ease and freedom on subjects such as would likely
most interest his listener, meanwhile watching his
countenance, noting his every word and action; and
thus he would continue to feel for salient points, and
sound his deeper nature, until the responsive chord
was sti'uck; and when his victim's tongue was loosed
he would listen attentively, merely dropping now and
then a remark to keep it going ; and this unruly mem-
ber was the rope with wdiich in the end the offender
was sure to hang himself Difterent cases he would
treat differently, being governed severally by the
nature of the case and by circumstance. In this
instance he had a malignant subject; but such were
his special delight. A first-class felon in a measure
commanded his respect; to convict such an one he
had time, patience, and money. A monster ruffian
was easier treated than a petty vagabond; large
crimes were wider known and more easily proven
than small ones.

The executive committee was then convened and
the prisoner put on trial. It was a matter of no small
moment how this case should be handled. The
greatest obstacle to the complete success of the
Committee was the confederate crust that shut from
them the mysteries of the class with wliich they were
at war. One well ained blow might shiver a score
of tenements, brittle with fragile guilt. Possessed of

BEFORE HIS JUDGE.

numbers, money, strength, it was the earnest wish
of these busy men of merchandise to achieve swift
success and have done with it. Here was one, if it
prove true, indeed, that he was Stuart, than whom
there was not another on the coast as famihar with
crime and criminals. This they knew from the reports
of his exploits, which came in from every quarter.
They had found something of what was called honor
among thieves. Jenkins would tell them nothing,
splendid brute that he was. But like many of our
most respectable money manipulators who sail to the
leev.'ard of law, Stuart, perhaps, was one of those great
rascals who was true to his confederates only so long
as it was to his interest to bo so. If the right chord
wiuj struck might he not tell all he knew?

With this object in view, the Committee determined
to use extraordinary care in their investigations. At
the trial John Sullivan testified that he had worked
with the prisoner at Foster Bar and elsewhere ; that
he knew him as English Jim and Jim Stuart. The
prisoner flatly denied ever having seen the witness,
and told of himself a far difFeront story.

This John Sullivan was novv' a boatman; he had as-
sisted at the capture of Jenkins, and had since joined
the Vigilance Committee. It happened that when
Stuart was placed in confinement at the committee
rooms Sullivan had been appointed to guard him.
On taking his position, n'^.turall}^ enough lie opened
tlie door of the room to sec what sort of wickedness
was within. Crouching in the corner of the room, to
his astonishment he beheld his old employer.

"Halloo, Jim!" he exclaimed. "How came you
here? You needn't pretend not to know me I"

Shortly after ]\Ir Schenck passed l)y. "Do you

know whom jou have here?" said Sullivan.

"What do \ou mean?" demanded Schenck.

"This is no other than English Jim, or Jim Stuart,

in this room," replied Sullivan; "lie who nmrdered

the sheriff at Auburn. I was present at the attem[)t')d

278

ENTER JAMES STUART,

lynching at Marysville, wlien the rope broke and he
escaped. "

From another witness was obtained a statement to
this effect: At Campo Seco early in 1851 had lived
a miner in a cabin alone. He had accumulated a
large bag of gold dust, and fearful lest his house should
be robbed, he had buried it some three hundred
yards distant in the chaparral. One morning about
fiv^c o'clock he heard a noise, and soon discovered a
man prowling about the premises. He ordered the
intruder off, cooked his breakfast, and went to work.
But tliinking of the matter during the day, he became
timid, and asked a friend to whom he ex[)laimed mat-
ters to lodge Avith him. The friend said : " No, lest
we both be nmrdered for your money; rather come
you and sleep in my house." The man did so; and
true to his ft)rebodings liis cabin was entered that
night and the ground dug up both in and around it,
but the robber found little to repay him for liis
trouble. This miner seeing Stuart at San Francisco
pronounced him the man whom he saw at his house
on the morning mentioned. The Mission man then
gave an account of the arrest; but this amounted to
nothinjj:. Others were examined on different charges
brought against him, but their evidence was of a
character not satisfactory to the Committee, and the
prisoner, so far as these charges were concerned, was
evidently getting the better of the trial.

The Connnittee now retired for a time, and the
matter was left more directly with Payran. Often
one mind in the management of an intricate case is
better than a score. In dealing with human nature
the greatest experts often act upon instinct, and are
unable to give a reason for what the}^ do.

Fortunately at this time there were others in the
city who liad seen Stuart in some one of his many
misbehaviors, and the condition of Burdue threw
round the affair a lively interest,, for it was now the
openly avowed opinion of many that the Marysville

THE INQUISITOR GENERAL.

}d to

the

judge had sentenced to death an innocent man. While
talking now like a father-confessor, now as a judge, and
then again as a pleasant companion, the wily inquisitor,
unknown to his prisoner, sent messages to five or six
of those whom he thought able to throw some light
on the matter, requesting their immediate presence.
The calls were promptly answered; and as these gentle-
men arrived the}^ were secretly admitted and shown
into another room.

Payran began again to talk with the prisoner. Ho
was now prepared to give his questions a more peremp-
tory tone. Up to this time the man of sin and his
interlocutor had carried on what would appear to an
observer an ordinary conversation ; yet each played a
deep game. The stake of one was his life, of tlie other
the lives of his fellow-citizens. Gradually ncaring
Jiis point, Payran pressed his queries concerning the
Jansen robbery, the Foster Bar murder, and the
Mar3'sville trial. The prisoner was at a loss to see
how these remarks applied to him ; he was not Stuart ;
his name was Stephens. True, he had come from
Sydney; so had many another honest man. "Un-
fortunately," sighed Stuart, " there exists a strange
prejudice in California against emigrants from British
colonies. This is hardly just; there arc bad men in
all communities. The Pike county people, as they
are called, that is to say emigrants from the Mis-
sourian frontier, are as bad a lot as any from Au-
stralia. In intelligence they are little above the
beasts they drive across the plains; in filthiness both
men and women are far below them. They do little
scientific stealing, because they liaven't the ability.
Why, I have seen," continued Stuart warming, " I
have seen their skin-cracked, tangle-hciided, bare-
footed, bag-breasted, and alkali-seasoned women, who
had driven their cow-teams from Independence, take
from a store a whole barrel of salt pork, just as if
they had bought it, carry it to their camp, and open
and eat it before the very eyes of the trader. It is

280

ENTER JAMES STUART.

blockheaded and base bunglers like these that bring
discredit on a country."

But this was treading on dangerous ground, and
Payran failed not to note the enthusiasm of the ac-
complished professional in the recital. The prisoner
was intelligent, of easy manner, and was a fluent and
by no means uninteresting or illogical speaker. He
persistently separated himself from the felon Stuart,
and from all connection with wrong-doing; lie had
engaged in mining and trading in various parts with
varying success, and was now about to stock a ranch
which he owned in San Luis Obispo county.

Finally Payran squarely faced him and said:
*' Stuart, I am perfectly well aware that every word
you have told me is false; but I shall get the truth
from you before I am through with you." From the
prisoner's eye there shot that strange sulphurous
light peculiar to him. Upon the table near Payran
lay a loaded revolver, and the inquisitor fancied he
saw the felon's hand moving cautiously toward it.
Without appearing to notice him Payran took the
pistol and slipped it into the table-drawer by which
he wivo sitting. Fixing upon him the most search-
ing gaze, Payran said: "Do I understand you to
aftirm that you are not the man called James Stuart,
and that you are not guilty of the crimes of robbery
and murder?"

" Most emphatically I do," was the reply.

Payran then gave a signal to the sergeant-at-arms
attending, and the witnesses, of whose presence up
to this time the prisoner was ignorant, entered. In
spite of his effort at composure, when he saw himself
thus confronted the face of Stuart turned pale as
death. There were standing before him George
Mason, who had worked with him at Foster Bar,
and who had testified at the Marysville trial that
Burdue was not Stuart; also Charles Hughes, who
was present at Stuart's examination before Judge
Stidger for the robbery of Dodge and Company;

EFFECTIVE TESTIMONY.

381

irms
up
In
self
e as
orge
Bar,
that
who
dge
my;

also George Hunt, who said he could identify him
by his speech alone.

" Stuart, do you know these men, or any one of
them?" demanded Payran.

" I do not," gasped the unhappy wretch.

" Did you never see this gentleman before?" point-
ing to one of them.

"Never."

" Nor this?"

" No."

Then turning to one of the witnesses the inquisitor
asked :

" Do you know this man?"

" I do," was the reply.

" State where and under what circumstances you
have seen him."

" I saw him at Sacramento while undergoing trial
for house-breaking."

Another witness was examined who saw him at
another place ; then yet another. Meanwhile passion,
of that sanguinary hue which defies control, mounted
to the prisoner's face, and with glaring eyes and that
hissing voice of his thickened with the throes of
emotions maledict, he cried:

"Well, then, may the devil damn you all, I am
James Stuart I Now do your worst!"

Sinking back into the chair from which he had
risen, the prisoner was an altered man. The gleam
of mingled assurance and defiance that so lately
played about his face had entirely disappeared, and in
its place sullen hate liad settled. The last few words
which he had spoken was as the yielding up of his
g *' y ghost.

" Stuart," said Payran, " you have got to die, and
speedily. Of that you may be assured; no earthly
power can save you. It is in no spirit of revenge or
hate that we shall hang you. Between such as we
and such as you there must of necessity be war. If
all were vultures there would be no victims; all may

ENTER JAMES STUART.

be good, but all cannot be bad. We do not mean
always to live the prey of such as you. We must
defend ourselves. You have played your game, and
have played it well; you knew the risks of it before
you took them, and up to this time you have been
remarkably successful in your escapes. Now your
time lias come. During your few remaining hours in
the body everything shall be done that we can do
to minister to your temporal and spiritual interests.
Any letters which you may desire shall be written,
any business affairs which you may intrust to us will
be executed more honestly, perhaps, than you would
attend to our business. One thing wo would like
from you — a full and free confession. This can be no
loss to you, while it may be a gain to society."

"But, sir," said Stuart, "this is no trial; you
would not dare to execute me on the strength of this
unlawful farce I"

" Sir," said Payran, " we, the people, are superior
to law; entertain no hope; rest assured you shall
never leave our hands alive. We will give you a
further trial if you wish it. You may have your
counsel, summon your witnesses, and prove yourself
innocent if you can. You know whether such a
course would avail you anything ; we think it unneces-
sary."

While Payran was speaking, and for a few moments
after, Stuart sat stooping with his face buried in his
hands. Finally raising his head he said :

" Well, I will do it, damn 'em ; there are some of
them I will get even with any wa}^ 1"

Frank M. Pixley, formerly counsellor for Stuart,
was now attorney for the city of San Francisco, and
he deemed it his duty to do something. First he
asked the supreme court to grant a writ of habeas
corpus to bring into court James Stuart. The writ
was issued, but, strange to say, the sheriff seemed in
no haste to make return. Then Mr Pixley rose in
court and requested that a rule on the sheriff be

PRANK M. PKLEY.

288

issued to make his return, which was done. This was
the 9th of July.

The same day the sheriff filed his return, endorsed
as served by leaving copies with several members
of the Vigilance Committee. Again rose Pixley in
court and begged another habeas corpus writ to bring
thither certain members of an organization styling
itself the Committee of Vigilance, to show cause why
they illegally detained the body of James Stuart.
The writ was granted, and returned by the sheriff,
with J. L. Van Bokkolen, W. H. Jones, A. J. Mc-
DufRe, and other members of the Committee in
answer. These gentlemen filed affidavits that the
body of James Stuart was not in their jDossession,
and was not at the time of serving the writ; where-
upon Mr Pixley made a motion to discontinue pro-
ceedings, which was readily granted, and the gentlemen
were discharged.

This was well enough so far as it went, but it did
not satisfy Mr Pixley. He now filed an affidavit
stating that, to the best of his knowledge and belief,
the person of James Stuart was in the custody of the
Committee of Vigilance, in the building then occu-
pied by them, and asked that a warrant be issued to
bring Stuart into court. The warrant was issued
immediately. The sheriff set out upon his mission.
Members of the Committee smiled upon him and
offered their assistance. The owner of the buildings
accompanied him, threw open all the doors, bade him
carefully examine every nook and corner, and bade
him search until his heart and Pixley's were satisfied.
And so he did, he and his deputies, but they found
nothing. There were the affable members of the
alleged Committee, reading, chatting, smoking, ap-
parently enjoying themselves as at a club. But no
James Stuart was forthcoming. And so the law's
messengers reported to their masters. And Pixley
was angry. He desired to make the Committee re-
sponsible, but the court ruled that with the Vigilance

2S4

ENTER JAMES STUART.

Committee, as such, it being an unincorporated body,
the law had nothing to do. Then went Pixley for the
members again. McDuffie's name was not down in
the writ, so he was discharged. Jones likewise was
allowed to depart. Van Bokkelen swore that he had
not then, nor did have when the writ was served on
him, nor did he ever have, the custody or control of
such a man as James Stuart. Pixley lifted high the
arm of law to let it fall on Van Bokkelen, for he was
sure that if he would he could touch the spring which
should display the coveted carcass of the murderer.
But no; he would be magnanimous; he would not
crush one man for the sins of many. Clemency en-
gendereth complacency. Pixley was pacified.

Now what 'lad done these men of work and mer-
chandise, to whom the habeas corpus was the most
holy of writs, and disobedience thereto more fearful
than the unheeded fulminations of the Vatican to
image -worshippers? Nothing. They knew nothing.
It was their business just then to know nothing, and
they did it well. Unwilling to oppose that wise pro-
vision of our constitution which secures to every
citizen the right when arrested to be brougfht before
his accusers; unwilling to disobey any mandate of
legalized authority which they could consistently with
their predetermined course avoid, they did the best
possible thing under the circumstances — they delivered
themselves from temptation. They would not hesitate
a moment to deny the service of such a writ should
it be necessary, for they had staked their lives upon
the success of this crusade, but it was better not to
be obliged to do so. Knowing that the habeas corpus
man was coming, they simply spirited their prisoner
away. Bluxome and Oakes took him first, and throw-
ing over him a long cloak and a slouched hat, they
thrust him into a carriage and drove away, no one but
themselves at the time knew whither. The moment
it became necessary for them to know nothing, two
others as trustworthy as themselves were sent, having

EVADING THE HABEAS CORPUS.

283

always at their command guards sufficient for the
purpose, and instantly Stuart was removed to a place
unknown to the first confederates; and so lie was
passed from one to another, the one having charge of
him to-day not knowing his whereabouts to-morrow,
imtil the ruffled dignity of the law was soothed; and
then they brought him back to the committee rooms.
Mr Bluxome informs me that on setting out with
Stuart two pistols were shown him, and he was t(^ld
that if he attempted to escape he would be shot.
He was first taken to the building of Endicott and
Oakes, on First street, between Market and Mission.
]\Ir Endicott, then alderman, was absent at the time.
When he came home and found there the well guarded
criminal, he proceeded to the committee rooms and
said: "This will never do! I am a city official, and
have taken the oath to support the government."
Reuben Maloney, a member of the first Committee,
then said: "I will take him." Among Reuben's mis-
cellaneous acquaintance was a female friend. In her
house the prisonless criminal, still strongly guarded,
was lodged. But Aspasia became alarmed at her
position between the law, which she herself loved not
overmuch, and the facile object of its vengeance, who
might slip his chains, and murder and rob her at any
moment. She told Reuben that their guest must de-
part. So Stuart was taken elsewhere, and was kept
moving from one to another, as before stated.

CHAPTER XIX.

EXIT JAMES STUART.

So, naturalists observe, a flea
Haa smaller fleas that on liim prey;
And these liavo smaller still to bite 'em ;
And so proceed ad infinitum.

Swift.

When the time came for taking Stuart's confession
the prisoner seemed more eager and animated than
liny one present. To him there was no little gratifi-
cation in the thought that if he must die, ho died at
least for something, and the world should know it.
At his last lifting, all the people should raise their
eyes and behold the greatest of scoundrels; the jour-
nals of the day should be filled with his exploits; the
common ranks of thievery should hang their envious
heads; and thenceforth all mankind should know that
in the vocabulary of renown next to honest greatness
stands the greatness of dishonesty.

Stuart now regarded the making of a confession a
privilege. " I myself assisted," says Coleman, "as
one of the executive committee, in hearing and record-
ing this confession; we sat through the night, and
until the morning sun shone in at the window, before
it was completed. He went through the whole range
of his many rascalities, gave vivid descriptions of his
adventures, entering with great zest into the details;
and it was curious to see his eyes brighten and
twinkle, and a smile play round his facile countenance,
when describing his best successes. He threw off all
restraint, and recounted his jobs as if bringing to
light a brilliant record which had heretofore been

[288]

THE BAND OF NINE.

287

kept necessarily in the dark. His guilt being so plain,
and the volume of it so vast, it seemed as if the life
of one man >vas insufficient to atone for it all."

" It now came out," says Schenck, " that Stuart
was a member of a gang of nine, who had been con-
cerned in various robberies and assaults, composed of
T. Belcher Kay, who was port-warden at the time,
John Morris Morgan, Whittaker, McKensie, Jack
Edwards, Jim Stuart, Benjamin Lewis, Jimmy-from-
Town, and one other, whose name I do not now re-
member. They had a plan to rob F. Argcnti's bank,
and also F. W. Macondray's store. Kay was one of
the leading spirits, and by virtue of his office of port-
warden he had occasion to visit frequently Macondray
and Company, and he took these opportunities to
ascertain what money was in the safe. The book-
keeper suspected something and advised a stronger
guard; and there were fourteen persons there the
night the gang had appointed to rob the building.
The band at one time rented the Alhambra, corner of
Kearny and Washington streets, opposite the El
Dorado b'nlding, a gambling -house which stood on
the south-east corner of the same streets, and opposite
also the building used for the custom-house after
the fire of May, 1850, which was on the north-west
corner of the two streets, and in whose vaults were
then two or three millions of dollars. John IS'Iorris
Morgan, a member of the gang, was a brick-mason,
and had worked in the construction of the vaults of
the building to which the custom-house was removed.
The plan was to cut a trench, underneath the street,
from the Alhambra building to the custom-house
building for the purpose of the robbery, and then carry
another trench from the custom-house across to the
El Dorado. After the proposed robbery had been
accomplished the first trench was to be closed up and
the other kept open to avoid suspicion." Of this
fraternity Stuart was the leading spirit.

But I will let the man speak for himself. T '^

288

KXIT JAMES STUART.

career vividly illustrates the hi;^h -pressure principle
of crime in California tlurinjj this reiun of terror:

" I was bom in Brighton, Knglund, in March, 1820. When I was sixteen
years of ago I committed forgery, and was banisiieil to Now South Wcles for
life. My friends interceded and procured my emancipation. From there I
went to South Australia; finally reached Panamd, and shipping in the Ten-
iiensve came to San Francisco in the spring of 1850. I immediately loft for
Sacramento; then went to Marysville, and next day to Foster Bar. There
I joined the Rock Mining Company and worked with them for a month. I
hired Sullivan, the witness who appeared against mc, and wo worked together
for some time in various places. E bought a claim of a mining company for
which I paid §;K)0; I also bought a life-boat for §400 which Avas used on half
shares ua a ferry-boat by another company. I lent the Missouri Company
$300. Down the river I had a row with Colonel Prentiss, and left the pluou
for Foster Bar, where I determined to locate. From my ferry-boat I was
receiving about six dollars a day, and the claim for which I paid $300 was
yielding me from ten to twelve daily. At Foster Bar two of us made n
garden, and that paid us well. I built myself a house, where I had a store,
with Bernard Feather, a German, as my partner. I also commenced building
the largest house in tlie place, for a boarding-house, but never finished it. I
was already tireil of this quiet uneventful life. The Missouri Company closed
their business and left the place without paying me. Of one of the company,
Daniel Casey, I bought everything tliey had left. I searched their house, and
linding a trunk open, full of clothes, I appropriated the contents to my own
use. I was afterward arrested for having stolen the trunk; an unjust accu-
sation, for having bought all that was in the house I considered the trunk my
rightful property.

"The night after I took the clothing I went to Captain Dodge's house and
played monte, where I lost $200. I felt that I had been cheated, and de-
termined that I would got even with him. I watched him closely that night
from an adjoining tent, and saw him put his money into a chest. Waiting
until they were asleep I entered the tent and carried off the chest. I found
$4300; there was one piece of gold worth S1508, another worth $738; the rest
was in dust, with the exception of about $000 in silver. I took it all home,
secreted the most of it in my garden, and resumed my work aa usual. In
about ten days I was arrested for liaving stolen the trunk, and paid at once
the $500 I il. Three days after I was again arrested on a charge of grand
larceny for *'€aling the $4300, and was committed to jail in Marysville. There
was great ' itement ; the mob was determined to hang me, but the judge had
me safely ^ t-ded by sixty men. The next morning Captain Dodge came to
me and said I would give him the money he would let me off and see that
I was not m( 3ted. I was uncertain what course to pursue ; but when I was
told that his ife and children were suffering at home I concluded to give it
Tip, all but $7/ 3, which I said I had lost. During the remainder of the day I
stayed with ctie sheriff, Edward Barr ; sold all my things immediately at auc-
tion, depositing the money, $170, with him. In the evening the sheriff went
out to collect some of the money. While he was gone his cook advised me to

CONFESSION.

8S0

loavo tlio plftce nt once. I told liini I couldn't go without money ; the coolc
replied that if ho waa in my plnco lio wouldn't risk delay ft moment, i Ntarted
at once for tSocrumento, walking; tliruo miles. I hud no money to buy a hoi'Mc,
.sii 1 Mtolu one. The next day I sold it ia tSucrankoutu, 'vheru I i-eniaiueil a turt-
iiiglit. Wliilo there I bccnuiu aciiuttintod with two or three Americans and
(iiic Sydney man, whoso solo business was to steal horses and mules, which I
would sell for them. I think T knew of every robbery committed in ."^aera-
ini iito while I was tlicre. Tho names of tho horse-thioves were Dab, James
iVate, and Johnny Ghl&ths. We heard that thero wa.s a bri^ in tlie river
with about §20,000 on board; bo Gritliths, Ivlwards, lirown, and I went m\
lupai'd and got all tho ni(uicy, which was oidy al>out $l'il)0. Tiio next day wo
agreed to como to San Francisco, A man eamo down witli us called Jinmiy-
irom-Town. He had robl)cd n Spaniard on tiie river of tiiirty ounces of nold,
\tliicU ho divided among four of us. Wo camu together from I'unumil on
Ijuird tho TcnntMsw, and 1 stowed him away on tlio passage. TJiu same nigi>t
we went aboard tho J. Canket, Edwards, Brown, Smith, and I, and robbed tho
vessel. Wo had some hard fighting to do; the captain was <lc.s[)erato, ami
wo fought him uni-l^ wo left him almost dead. During tho fight his wife
came out of the cabin with u sword in her Imnd, which I took away from her.
I acted as captain. Wo were all masked. Wo searched tho cabin, and ob-
tained from the captain's wife all tho money on board ; also, at my iniuest, slio
;.'ave me an Allen si.K-shootcr. Tho woman begged I would not tako lier hus-
band's life. I said I did not want to do it if ho would bo quiet. I was about
to fcike a splendid gold chronometer watch. She hoped I would not tuko it
as lior mother had given it to her. I said on those conditions I would not
take the watch. Tho others kicked up a row for not taking it, but I told
th( r.i that I was master ; that they had made me so and I would do as I liked.
licfor(! leaving the vessel I tied tho captain's hands l)ehind him, shut him up
ii; the cabin, and told his wife not to speak for two hours, as I should not
leave the ship. We found that instead of getting $15,000 or 310,000 we had
gut only §170. When tho captain's wife gave me the money she said tliat
they had sent it nearly all home on a previous packet, or wo should have got
it all without doubt. The captain advertised a loss of ?000. We stopped in
San Francisco for five or six days. I spent one night in Grayson and Guild's
store, where wc attempted to get tho safe containing tiio money, but found it
too heavy to move. Then I went to Sacramento alone, aiul stopped at Moore's
house, on L street. Did nothing but play cards, and I won a great deal of
money. I sold horses and mules, as they were brouc^ht in by norse-thieves,
under the name of Campbell. Moore died, and I bought his wife out for §1.')0.
All the goods stolen in Sacramento were brought to this house. John Griffiths,
John Jones, Bill Nelson, and Old Jack were my boarders. A few <lay3 after-
ward GiiiEtiiS was arrested for picking a man's pocket of §800 in an auction
store. On Monday ho was committed to the prison brig with his bail placed
at §1500. They were kicking up a row in Sacramento and wotddn't go straw
bail, so to raise the money I took a team, loaded it from my house witii stolen
goods, and started for Mormon Island, where I sold everything. Then 1 re-
turned to Sacramento, and obtained au order from tho sheritl' to go on board

the brig and see Griffiths. I found that on the night before, in trying to
Pop. TBm., Vol. I. 19

290

EXIT JAMES STUART.

escape with irons on, ho had been drowned. Wliile I was away my house was
robbed of everything : I did not think it worth while to open another house,
and went to live in a small house near the burying-ground. A few days
afterward I was arrested for house-breaking. I employed Mr Pixley, who
promised to get mc out of the scrape for fifty dollai's. I told him I was
guilty. Old Jack swore false, and I gave him twenty dollars. About a
week or ten days after, was arrested again for breaking into a house in a
lumber yai'd. I was very nearly shot there; a bullet went through my
hat at till events. I got taken and committed aboard the brig for trial.
A night or two before. Mat Hopword, from Sydney, or Big Brummy, as
wc call him, robbed a house with me, where we got between eight hundred
and nine lumdrcd dollars' worth of property. Employed Mr Pixley again,
and ]iaid him fifty dollara, and gave him fifty more for getting off Bii,'
Biummy, who had robbed a woman. Two days after I had been on board thi'
prison brig a constable came do'wii from Auburn and identified me as tin:
imu'dcrer of Sheriff IMoorc of Auburn. Two ur three houra afterward two
more constables came on board, one from Foster Bar and one from Marysville,
and identifiei' .le as having mui-dered Charles Moore. One had a warrant :
they went to .j udge Sackett, who gave them an order to bring me ashore. 1
was taken to the judge's office; Mr Pixley appeared for me, and would not
allow the judge to examine me. I was then sent on board the brig again.
The next morning the sheriff came for me, and Mr Pixley told him that his
warrant was not legal ; that he could not take me without another warrant
from ^larysville ; so the sheriff went after it. I then gave Mr Pixley my bag
of gold dust to weigh out six hundred dollars, and an order for one hundrcc I
and thirty dollars, which ho told me he had got aud would pay mo next day.
The orders I gave Pixley were in the name of James Campbell. That night I
made ni j' escape from the brig. I walked the next day to Dry Creek, half-way
to Stock ton ; when I reached Stockton I disguised myself and came to San
Francisco on a steamer ; this was about the middle of December. I stoppinl
at Edwards' house in Sydney Valley.

" I never went out of the house during the day. At night I went to I'uit
Philip Hou»c kept by ^IcCormick and Whittaker. At this tune Jauscn
lived next door to Whittaker, We heard that there was a safe in a butcher's
shop in Broadway witli eight or nine thousand dollars in it, soWliittakcv
and I, Avith Edwards and George Adams, took the window out, moved tho
safe into tho street, but could not get it any further. Our next attempt was
Mintuni's; Belcher Kay paid there was a great deal of money there. In this
mess there was a largo number of us. Edwards, Whittaker, George Adam^
I'ldward McCormick, l^elchcr Kay, Bob McKensie, and I took a boat, fall
and tackle, uiado shears, put a feather-bed in the boat, augers and saws, anil
all went pretty well armwl. Three or four of us got inside tho building aiul
moved the safe a little; made a iev, auger holes hi tho floor, intending to cut
tho iloor away ; some one came to tho door, a false alarm, and we had to run.
McKensie gnoiled it all by not knowing his instructions; ho gave Avrong sitr
nals, and we jumped into the water and ran away. With such a big haul
we should not have stirred for ono man or two. Belcher Kay watched out-
side. The next thing was a jeweler's shop; Belcher Kay had examined it;

CONFESSION.

2&1

use was

house,

w days

3y, who

n. I was

\.bo«t a

jse in ii

ugh my

or trial.

mmy, jw

huinlfcil

ly again,

; off Bis

)oard tho

10 as the

vard two

avysvillo,

warriiiit:

ishore. 1

vould not

rig again.

n that his

;r warrant

ey my bag

[o huudn'il
next day.
at iiiglit I
:, half-way
me to San
I atopinnl

nt to I'o'.t
ne JansLU
butcher's
Wliittalii'V
moved tho
tempt was
In thirt
go Adam-,
boat, fall
saws, and
ilding and
ding to cui
lad to run.
Avrong si I'
a big haul
,tchcd out-
;amiued it ;

ho said there was twenty or thirty thousand dollars in diamonds there. Ed-
wards and I went at night and looked at the place ; gave my opinion that we
could not do it ; too much risk, as there were four or five men in the shop
below, and so we gave it up as a bad job. The next thing Belcher Kay got
for us was Macondray'a store ; he had been watching it for a month, and ho
told us that there were three safes raid a vault with lots of money ; as much
as we could take away in a boat. We came np in the night to do it. but somo
of the men backed out ; and considering there were eleven men in the building
we all gave it up.

"The next night Whitaker infonned us of Janseu'a place. He said tliat
when Janscn moved lv> h.id a bag which ho supposed contained ten or fifteen
tliousand dollars ; we agreed to go and get it. Jim Briggs and J. M. Morgan,
who had just come from Monterey, and Wliittakor. Edward McCormick,
Billy Kcwes, Belcher Kay, and I, who had been together for ten day.s, were
in this job. McKcnsio had had a falling out with ^lorgan and Briggs, and had
to leave. Morgan went mto Janaen's store firet; the rest stoiiped in tlic road.
Whitaker and I stood at the window durlrg this time I thought lie wu.i
too long and could get no money, so I went in to help him; I got lialf-u;.y
up the shop, behind the counter; I heard Jansen ask Morgan what ho want<'(l
there; Morgan said he wanted to look at some blankets. Jansen turin.l
around and saw me behind the counter, and I also told him I wanted soiu'.!
blankets. He stepped about two yards to show me the blankets, when T hii
him on the head with a slung-shot and knocked him down. I then left
Morgan to look after him while I searched for the money. I only hit liir.i
ohcc. I opened a desk and took out a shot-bag containing money, lioiii
.Morgan and I had cioaks thrown about us as a disguise. I carried the money
iiome to Sydney Valley. There was one thousand five hundred and si.\t\ -
light dollars in gold coin. We divided it among eight, making a hundicil
and ninety-si.v dollars apiece. We M'ent down to^vn and spent a few hours
at Mrs Hogan's, on Sansome street; her house was a crib for stolen property ;
she wears my picture, and knows all about our motions, but Mr Hogan w;is
innocent. The next day tiiere was quite a fuss about town made over Jansun's
as.sault and robbery. We did not ..^mmit any more robberies while the trial
of the men arrested for striking .Tansen was going on, as we did not wisii the
men hung, knowing that they were innocent. We would have shot fifty men
rather than have i.ad them hung. We agreed ihat if those men were Iiuiil;,
which we expected they would be, we would fire the town on Sunday nigiit
in several places.

"A few nights after we agreed to rob a bank kept by Beebee, Ludlow, and
Co., on Montgomery street, fn this we were to bo assisted by Bob Mclntyre
and Andy McCa:ty. They told us that whenever \vc were reatly they would
take the watch off their beat. These polico-oificera used to know all we weio
about those days. Wo tried two nights; opened the outside door by false
keys. Watched it two days, and concluded there was not money enougii to
pay for attempting the robbery, as we observed the ijorter come t'ach morning
from Argenti's with bags of money deposited the previous night.

" The next night we went to Young's Bank, next to El Dorado, in Wu-shiug-
ton street. Morris Morgan helped build the monej* vault, and gave us tiie

EXIT JAMES STUART.

infommtion. Went down El Dorado steps, opened the door with false keys;
entered and found two lieds ; discovered too many people sleeping about there,
considered it too dangerous, and gave it up. Belcher Kay was an accomplice ;
there were eight in the gang; Kay generally was outside watching. We
have had an understanding with police-officers Mclntyrc and ^McCarty for a
lonj: time ; they were concerned with us in the robbery of Young's Bank.

" The next night we stole a small safe out of Emerson and Dunbar's auc-
tion store; this was Sunday night; there was but twenty-four dollars in this
safe. Adams stepped out at the time of Aliuturn's robbery.

'■ The following night we stole a safe from Gladwin and Whitmore; took
it up the sand-hills, but were discovered before we liad broken it open. Here
we lost all our tools, which were worth five hundred dollars to us. Then I
went to Mrs Hogan's house. Bill Ilewes went home that night. Not liking
to see the men go to the watch-house, I wanted the rest to come and free
them by force; but they refused, thinking that by employing Mr Parburt
and other lawyers they would be cleared. The next daj' Morgan was ac-
quitted and Briggs committed to jail.

"The next day I went to Cold Blrflf in the schooner B. F. Allen; I was
twenty -seven days on the passage to Trinidad Bay. I there saw Bob McKensie,
Dab, the horse- thief, and Jem Peet; they came from Oregon. They said that
five horse-thieves had taken about sixty horses from Sacramento City to Oregon,
and there sold them. I found Trinidad to be a bad place for me. I played
cards with Dab, and won all his money, about three hundred dollars. I then
came back in the B. F. AUen, and paid the passage of Dab and Peet also to Sfui
Francisco. We arrived in San Francisco on Sunday, when Dab threatened to
inform on me if I didn't give him money ; so I gave him fifty dollars.

" I went to James Kitchen's house, and sent him on IxHird the schooner for
my bed and blankets. The same day Dab and a policeman stopped me on the
street ; the policeman wanted me to go to the recorder's with him. I drew
my pistol to shoot him, and he shoved off. 'J'here were many people around,
and I gave him one hundred dollars to quiet him. I then went to Kitchen's
to stop that night. I went to see Mrs Hogan, who told me that there was a
waiTant out for Whitakcr and Long Charlej', for robbhig a man in her house
of fifteen thousand dollars ; she said she had secreted Whittaker at the
Mission, and advised me to leave the town, r.s the police were searching her
house.

' ■ The next morning I hired a horse at a stable and rode to Monterey. At
this time I had just taken the name of Carlisle, having previously been known
as Campbell. I went to Monterey on purpose to attend the trial of the men
arrested for robbing the Monterey custom-house. I went to the watch-house
and saw the prisoners. The st coud night my horse was stolen from me. Dick
Osman was first put on trial. Parburt went down from Sun Francisco to do-
fLiid him, and I appeared as u witness ia his favor. Whittaker was also at
Monterey; Briggs was then in custody; Kitchen airived at Monterey in tlic
steamer. We all knew the parties were guilty. Althougli they took thir-
ti'on thousand dollars down from San Francisco, all that was robbed was eight
thousand, though lUiudall said that he had lost thirty thousand. Parburi,
McDonald, and Judge Merritt were counsel for prisoners, and Colonel Weller.

CONFESSION.

293

keys;
there,
plice ;
We
J for a
ik.

■'s auc-
in this

>; took
Here
Theu I
t liking
lucl free
I'arburt
was ac-

( ; I was
cKcusio,
laid that
) Oregon,
I played
. I then
Iso to San
atened to

,ooner for
ine on the
I drew
e around,
Kitchen's
ere was a
bcr house
er at the
ching her

terey. At
len known
the men
Itch-housc
Ine. Dick
Idco to dc-
las also at

t-cy in

the

took thir-

Iwas oif^ht

I'arbun,

lul Wellcr.

Bolts, and Wallace for pi execution. There was a gre.it deal of false swearing
and bribv^ry. .AH the money was taken from the prisoners ; the court charges,
amounting to one thousand dollars, were first deducted, and the balance,
twelve thousand dollars, was equally divided between the prisoners and prose-
cuting counsel. The prisoners then paid their own lawyers. Randall received
one half and the prisoners the other half of the twelve thousand dollars.
Ryan, Morgan, and Tom Quick were then in jail, but Osman Mas tried and
conseated to the division. The sheriff of Monterey received seven hundred
dollars and a gold watch for packing tlic jury and for other services. Morris-
man, a juryman, received one hundred dollars from the prisoners, which was
paid after the trial. Dennis ^McCarthy, the constable, received one hundred
dollars from the prisoners for false swearing. He first swore for the pi'ose-
cution, and then swore back in favor of the prisoners. Jim Carson, a jury-
man, held out for guilty ; he was bribed by the prosecution. The judge knew
nothing about all this. Parburt told me to let the prisoners out of jail ; I
broke the door down and they were free.

" Then I started on foot from Monterey for tlie southern mines. Wlicii I
reached San Jo8(5 I stole a horse, saddle, and bridle, but was captured near
!^an Joaquin. I got in a row with eleven Mexicans who took my gun and
said that I had stolen their horse; they took mo back to Liverniore l'a.ss.
I gave them my watch and chain to release me, and started on foot for Soiioia.
From there I went to Sullivan's and worked about a week, but did not like
mining. Then went to ^lariposa wherb I worked for five weeks ; thoi-e I mot
two Americans who knew me ; I did not think myself safe and started on foot
for San Francisco.

"I arrived here on Tuesday night ; I saw Kitchen in the El Dorado r went
to his house whore ho used to live ; all my things wove loft at Kitehon'N, and
are ptill there. Wednesday morning I arose and wont to the Mission to .';ee
an acquaintance who lives at the bakery; this ncquaintanco wished me to rob
a SpiUiiard's house at the Mission. I went into the Mansion House, saw the
safe, and said I would .'joc him again about it. I took tlie hills on the way
back from tho Mission to avoid being soon, and was arrested on the sand-hills
doing nothing ; I was on tlio way to North Beach.

"In coming from San Jose to San Francisco last January or Februar\- I
came in the steamer JNV»' iS/.ir, witli one Smith, wiio was afterward shot in
Sacramento \vlule robbing ii house. W'c wi'ut from Sim Francisco to fean
.los(5 on purpose to rob tlic cliui-ches of the isilver aud gold images. We were
told th.at there was .'i gold imai;e •\V(i;,'liing ten pounds, but we could not llnd
it. We got stuck on a nm<l-flat on tlio pas.sagc. In tlio morning we ^vcr(>
called into the cabin and told that a passenger had been robbed of one
thcjusand dollars in gold dust. They took my gold dust, amounting to about
six hundred dollars, and that of another passenger ; but I did not conmiit tlio
robljory nor know anything about it. Before leaving the Kew Slav I threatened
tlio raptain tliat I would rcpcirt him if he did not give me back my money ;
ho was afraid I might make him trouble and gave it up.

"On arrival here I advised robbing the Nevi Star. I met Teddy McCor-
inick and John Edwards, and went down to the steamboat. 1 went on board,
opened the window, and robbed the desk of about two iiundred and lifty

294

EXIT JAMES STUART.

Hollars. T have worn a eerape and have ridden horseback in San Francisco.
Jimmy-from-Town robbed Dow's safe and blew it up with powdei. Have
heard hundreds remark that the day would soon come when this country
would be taken by the Sydney people."

In addition to this story of guilt is the testimony
of Joseph Hetherington, who took charge of Mrs
Hogan's house at her husband's request while he was
at the mines. Whitaker boarded there during Mr
Hogan's absence. Whitaker gave him this account
of the murder of Moore, the sheriff: He said that
Stuart, with two Americans, was travelling from
Nicolaus to Marysville; the}- had but little money,
and they concluded that they might as well be dead
as to be without money; so they agreed to rob every
man they met until they secured twenty thousand
dollars apiece for themselves. Sheriff Moore hap-
pened to be the first man who crossed their path, and
Stuart at once shot him. It was for this murder that
Burdue was convicted before Stuart was arrested.

Stuart's confession raised quite a commotion among
the fraternit}'. While the professionals, whose sombre
deeds were lighted by the people and the press,
scattered, respectable malefactors as a matter of
course loudlj^ proclaimed their innocence. I do not
doubt that Stuart exaggerated where he entertained
enmitv, or that he lied whenever it suited him. He
was bad enough to do anything, and he was strong
enoujjh to do much. Yet in false charijes there are
usually some facts. A lie seldom rests on no founda-
tion ; or if it does, the victim of it is indeed a sufferer,
for such is the construction of men's minds that he
can never wholly escape the effects of it. Evil is
never spoken of the innocent whom the slanderer
does not know. Vice, like fire, is a dangerous play-
thing. When the clouds drop pitch, you may look
for the white-robed at home.

Scarcely had the clock told nine on the morning
of July 11, 1851, when the Monumental bell struck

SENTENCE.

205

|rning
Itruck

lor the assembling of the general committee at their
rooms on Battery street, and instantly the streets
were filled with citizens hurrying thither. So much
time was occupied by the Committee in their grave
deliberations that the crowd, congregated in knots
about the building, became impatient. Those who
knew nothing of the proceedings within began to
think it but an ordinary conference, and about noon
dropped away to attend to their respective aflfairs.

The minutes of the jjeneral meetinor, Selim Wood-
worth i-^ ihc chair, are brief and to the point. On
motion the evidence in the case of Stuart was read.
Questions were then put, and it was determined that
the prisoner was guilty of crimes which rendered him
liable to the punishment of death; that he should be
hanged; that a clergyman be sent for; that the exe-
cution take place at two o'clock; that the executive
committee should make the necessary arrangements;
that no i:)orson be allowed to leave the room; that the
prisoner receive his sentence. Half an hour after, the
sentence of death was pronounced upon the prisoner,
who during the final meeting, with imperturbable cool-
ness, sat manacled in an adjoining room. Once or
twice during the awful three hours thus employed
he placed his fettered hands behind his head, yawned,
and exclaimed, "This is damned tiresome; give me a
chew of tobacco!" In this request he was indulged.
Bcinj? brouoht into the council -room to receive his
sentence, he displayed the same apparent non<.'halance.
Two hours of grace were allowed him in which to pre-
pare for eternity. Stuart received the clergyman,
Klines, with great respect; though at first sullen ho
yielded to the influence of the hour, and at last ac-
knowledged the justice of his fate, declaring that ho
could die without resentment toward an}' one. At
the expiration of two hours the prisoner was brought
out, bound. He was a man five feet nine inches iu
height, well proportioned, about thirty-one ^-ears of
age; his hair was brown; lie wore a mustache and

lit;

EXIT JA:HES STUART.

whiskers; his forehead was broad and his face had an
intellectual cast; he had on aquiline nose, compressed
mouth, and slightly proj jcting chin. At the time of
his execution he was neatly dressed in a dark jacket,
white shirt, brown pants, and patent-leather boots.
During the time while the doomed man was closeted
with thu clergyman his four hundred judges sat in
the committee room like statues, solemn and silent.
Scarcely a word was spoken, and the gravity of un-
pleasing but inexorable necessity was depicted on
every counten mce. One of their number went out
and addressed the people before the door, telling them
that guilt of the deepest dye had been proven with-
out a doubt, that this proof was backed by the pris-
oner's confession, and that the sentence of immediate
death ^Tid been pronounced. The speaker then asked
if the proceedings met their approval. ^ ffirmation
was promptly spoken, with but three dissenting voices.
About half-past two the Committee emerged from
their rooms with the prisoner, bound and supported
by two members. Arm-in-arm, eight abreast, witli
weapons read}', they marched in platoons, with slow
and measured tread, along Battery street to Market-
street wharf, where stood a derrick ready for their
purpose. When thu front of the coiumn reached the
wharf it opened, parted to each side, and the two
hundred body-guard passed between the two lines,
which immediately closed in the rear and locked arms,
forming an impenetrable barrier between those per-
forming the ceremony and the people, who were thus
prevented from 3rowding the wharf The bravado
of the man now left him. Many times he had re-
garded the approach of death, but never had the grim
monster stared him in the face as now. For a moment,
as he looked at the gallows prepared for him, and as
he felt the solemn hush pervading the assemblage, his
.strong frame shook like a leaf; but ir^ mediately re-
covering, he thenceforth ac([uitted himself manfully.
At his own request he was not blindfolded; reiter-

SOLEMN SCENE

207

grrim
)ment,
land as
[ge, his
3ly re-
Infully.
1 reiter-

ating a few words of penitence, and acknowledging
the justice of his sentence, he closed his eyes. One
end of the rope was quickly adjusted round his neck,
the other thrown over the derrick and seized by
twenty hands, which quickly jerked the criminal in
air, where he was suspended for half an hour, until
long after life was extinct. Throughout the entire
proceeding the most perfect order prevailed, no re-
sistance being offered by any one. The solemn still-
ness of the people, as they stood with uncovered
heads, attested the grave importance attached to the
execution, indicating no feeling of revenge, but the
consummation of simple justice. In the harbor flags
on the vessels had been hoisted and cannon fired.

As I have before remarked, there was no military
organization in the Committee of 1851, as there was
in that of 185G, but a police system only. At the time
of Stuart's execution the general committee resolved
itself into an inpromptu military association, con-
sisting of companies or squads under their respective
captains, in all about three hundred and eight}' men.
Thomas J. L. Smiley, a tall, straight, fine -looking
man, no less able in counsel than efficient in action,
commanded one company, with his business partner,
John Middleton, acting as lieutenant. While Stuart
was hanging, and before life was wholly extinct,
(jrallaghcr, the coroner, came in hot haste, elbowing
his wa}' through the crowd mitil, reaching Smiloy's
locked line, he paused, and throwing into attitude and
speech the half of Ireland's dignity, he cried :

"I demand permission to pass!"

"Who are you?" asked Middleton.

"You know well enough who I am," said the
corpse-tender; " I'm the coroner."

" The devil you are!" replied Middleton. "Well,
^Ir Coroner, you don't pass this line until that fellow
is a fit subject for your administration."

As we have seen, all these proceedings were char-
acterized by sobriety and solemnity. Yet peculiar to

EXIT JAMES STUAET.

the people and to the time was that spirit of manu-
mission from ancient superstitions, so inseparable from
their acts, that while engaged in the most serious
affairs they could not behave otherwise than in their
natural manner.

I have said that James Stuart was a great scoun-
drel— a mean scoundrel. Yet the more I investigate
his character the more I am astonished at his cool-
ness, courage, and ability. Had the stream of hio life
been directed into honest channels he would have
been no less prominent for good than he was now for
evil. If in the eighteen months' work, the account
of which he recited with such vivid exactness, the
same energy and talent had been displayed in some
honest direction, as is always true in the economy of
crime, the results would have been no less beneficial
to himself and to society than his actual course was
detrimental. When one lays aside all hope of life,
and walks the street as already a dead man, there is
apt to be very little acted for effect; or if so, then
doing for effect is surely a dominant quality of such
a one. Now when Stuart knew his time had come,
villain as he was, I can but admire his conduct; for
prominent in all his bearing were displayed in a re-
markable degree admirable qualities which many an
honest and good man lacks. He was not defiant, like
Jenkins, but modest. Marching to execution with
head erect, firm step, and graceful carriage, he looked
less the villain then than at any time before. Nor
was his coolness indicative of audacity or indifference.
It was simply the display of a natural philosophic
strength of mind, exercised unconsciously, or nearly
so. Yet he was an audacious villain, and every inch
a villain.

CHAPTER XX.

A BUSY MONTH.

The next in place and punishment were they
Who prodigally threw tueir souk away.

Dri/den.

The work went bravely on. Throughout the land
it was deemed the proper thing to do. Men knew
that nothing would cure the evil but hanging. Tin.'
wicked ones were so active, so cunning; like Antceos,
as long as their feet touched firm earth no Hercules
could crush them. July, 1851, saw town and country
all astir. Not of that outward noisy form, visibk;
to the eye of the uninitiated, was the traffic of the
tribunal; but whosoever with spiritual vision might
penetrate the calm surface, or, better still, in bodily
form step behind the already blood-begrimed curtain,
would soon hear the clatter of the morality-mill, and
witness the various processes of cleansing there applied
to soiled souls.

This was the busiest month in the annals of the
first Committee. The mass of accumulated material,
most of it of a secondary character lacking special
interest to the general reader, is overwhelming. What
a revelation was that of James Stuart 1 and what a
world of work it made! Meetings were held daily,
sometimes twice a day, and correspondence was opened
with rogue -exterminators and country committees
from Britisli Columbia to Mexico.

Hundreds of descriptions of suspected persons were
sent from one committee to another — instance the

[299]

300

A BUSY MONTH.

following, given by the Marysville Committee to the
Sail Francisco Committee:

"Charles A. Pitcher of Belfast, Maine, was whipped at ToUe's old dry
diggings, above Marysville, about the 25th of June, for stealing six hundred
dollars out of a miner's tent. Previous to the theft ho had passed undur thu
name of Silas Pacard. He is over six feet in height, broad-shouldered nnd
full flesh, but not over fleshy. Will weigh a hundred and eighty-five to one
hundred and ninety pounds; dark hair, cut short, and rather brown complex-
ion ; black eyes, and heavy black eyo-brows» He walks with a long, stately
step. Ho is about thirty years of age. Wore about the 1st of July a caudet
coat of black, skirts rounded like a quaker's, black pants, and a low dralt
brush hat, with black band. Ho had a partner named Miller — a very respect-
able man — in the grocery business on Front street, Sacramento. His partner
quit business on suspicion of Pitcher's dishonesty. He has a brother-in-law
named Miller, of the firm of Pierce and Miller, in Sacramento City, J street,
between Seventh and Eighth, who is a very honorable and respectable
merchant. "

Criminals were caught and witnesses examined
the score, involving the taking and writing of great
masses of evidence, which might or might not prove
relevant. Then there was the sea to scour as well as
the land; on the arrival of every vessel from Au-
.stralia the passengers and crew were overhauled for
disreputable characters; also passage to be secured,
and paid, for the exiled. There was the hanging of one
and the getting ready of others to be hanged. Thor(^
were the new quarters to make tenantable, rooms and
cells to arrange, and the accommodations of con-
stantly increasing numbers and requirements to be
provided for.

The organization had likewise to be remodelled.
Hastily arising from immediate necessity, adapted to
.simple duties rather than to complex and permanent
affairs, there was much to be considered and olianffofl.
Besides the outlaws there were the lawyers, and law
officers, and prisons to look after. Suits were brought
which must be defended, and writs of habeas corpvs
there were to be dodged.

In the archives of the Committee before me arc
abstracts of the character of multitudes of those

CIIARACTFRS DESCRIBED.

aoi

then arriving here, of which the following are speci-
mens :

James Ogle, Irishman; left home in 1840 in the
emigrant ship Chamjnon for Sydney. Occupation a
laborer; kept a tavern in Sydney; thinks there aro
no convicts on board this ship; has a wife and child
on board; knows a Mr Eggleston in this city.

Thomas D. Snodgrass, a Scotchman; left Liverpool
as passenger in ship George Canning in 1828; kept a
sheep farm in New South Wales; has a cousin here
named Benjamin Sullivan.

William Luch, an American, born in Connecticut;
on ship's articles; has been on board about five
months; went to Sydney as steward in ship Christoval,
a whaler, from Nantucket; ran away from ship ; never
knew any of the passengers until he came on board.

David Rose, Englishman ; left Liverpool for Auck-
land in convict ship carrying prisoners; remained in
New Zealand two years; came to California in ship
Johnson, arriving in March, 1850, with two hundred
passengers.

Helen Casey, Irish, single woman ; arrived in Syd-
ney in 1820 in emigrant ship Premier; was waitress
in an asylum at Sydney where she left her father; has
a sister on board.

William Butt was taken before the Committee and
testified: "I was born in Southampton; left from the
Isle of Wight by the convict ship Lord Eldon, which
took two hundred and forty-five convicts from Ports-
mouth ; I engaged with Captain McCarthy as servant;
u person named Bolton who resides here knows me ;
I have never been a convict." He was discharged
from custody.

Mary Ann Banks, an Englishwoman ; loft England
eleven years since in ship Sir Edward Paget for Syd-
ney. No certificate.

Lists descriptive of suspected persons were carried
in the pockets of the vigilant police, of which I give
two specimens:

302

A BUSY MONTH.

Russell, alias * Moo the Jew,' aged fortj ; height
five feet seven; black hair, swarthy complexion, dark
beard, eyes dark-brown; mouth broad, and upper lip
straight; scar on right side of the chin; noso straight,
eyes sunken; not like a Jew; very smooth and plausible
in his address; gives to his eyes a peculiar expression;
married, one boy two years old; round-shouldered,
but strongly built; chin round. Can be found in a
house on Sansomc street, near Pacific.

Ben Sellers, aged forty-one; five feet eleven or six
feet ; high cheek-bones, frcclded, pitted by small-pox ;
sunken gray eyes, brown hair, no wliiskers; strong
and squarely built; active man; mouth very wide:
married, no children.

On board the American ship Adirondack, arriving
from Hobart Town in July, 1851, with two hundred
and fifty passengers, one hundred of whom were
women, were found two who were not permitted to
land.

Herewith I give a copy of a bill of lading in the
shipment of an exile :

"July 17, 1851.

"Know all Men hy these Presents, That I, P. Jaa. 0. C. Wliite, captain
of the brig Cameo, bound for the port of Sydney, New South Wales, am held
and firmly bound imto the commonwealth of Upper California, United States
of America, in the siun of two thousand dollars, upon this condition : That
I will deliver the body of one Alexander Wright, a convict, who has this day
been put on board of my brig by the citizens of San Francisco, luid for whom
the Vigilance Committee have paid me the sum of one Imndred dollars for the
passage of said Alexander Wright to the aforesaid port of Sydney, dangers
of the sea only excepted ; and that I will present him to the authorities there,
and not return him a/^aiu to California, nor land him during this voyage at any
intermediate poit.

"Witness my hs'^l this 17th day of July, 1851.

"P.J. O. C. White.

" In presence of A. Oaksmithe and Robt. S. Lammot."

Here is the " Report of 537, V. C":

"A man named McCurdy, who came passenger in the British bark Prin-
cess Royal, from London, haa now in the United States Appraiser's Office 800
pounds of apparatus and false dies for counterfeiting the diOerent silver and
gold coins of the United States. This man is accompanied by a man named

COMMITTEE RESOLUTION.

808

Walker. The dies, etc., will be shown to any of the Cominittoe who may Ijo
pleased to call upon the oiBccra of customs at the appraiser's store, California
■treet; and they will also give a description of Mr McCurdy."

Mr Payraii seuds in the following communicatioi;
the 7th of July :

" From information received from a reliable source I would present Yorba
Bueua Island as being infested with a gang of thieves, and perliapa worse. It
appears tliat the cutter Polk lay to the Icuward of the island yesterday, and
while tlierc distinctly diiw several men leave the beach for an instant and rr-
turn again, anned apparently with rifles, seemingly, to all on Iward tlio PolL,
to prevent tlie landing of any persons from her. They also saw them packing
boxes and bales in great quantity. The jwrty on board tlio Polk imagined
that the gang on shore took tiiem for tlio Vigilance Connnittee. One gentle-
man informed mu that ho has no doubt of tiic fact that the island is the vc-
ceptaclo of n, largo amount of stolen property, aa well as the habitation of several
felons. I therefore respectfully and earnestly call the? attention of the ex-
ecutive committee to the subject, antl proiX)SO the following motion: Tliat
tlio oiScor in command of the Pulk on Sunday, the Gth, bo respectfully re-
quested to come before our body and relate particulars touching the inattct,
as well as inquire of him as to the gentlemen on the Polk who witnessed the
scene."

The following, from the proceedings of a July
meeting, sufficiently demonstrates the sentiment of
the association at this time:

"Whereas, Seeming quiet, peace, and safety have attended our career of
vigilance up to this period, and the dreaded evils to be apprehended from
sudden outbreaks of the peoplo have fallen short of the expectation of tlio»e
who were opposed to such measures; and whereas. The Committee of Vigil-
ance of this city has been the foster-father of all sucli institutions throughout
the state, whereby safety has been guaranteed to our brethren, and hundreds
of the evil-minded who were in our midst have tied, whereby much danger
will bo avoided, it now becomes us to so arrange the baaia of our associatiou
that its labors may be lessened and our usefulness continued, and tlio future
present a bright scene compared with the past. Therefore we would suggest
in its present form and in the following order: That the executive committee
continue to discharge their duties by meeting at a room to be selected, and
there receive all reports that may be ofi'ered ; aad should any case occur of
suliicient importance to call the general committee together, to then call them
by notice to be given through the public papers or tap of the bell ; and in con-
junction with other associations throughout the state, to hold all public matters
under consideration, and report thereon ; to hold the acts of all our representa-
tives subject to our examination, so that thereby some assurance may bo had of
their faithfully discharging their duties. We would also suggest the ^uo-
priety of receiving all good citizens as members, who shall at their initiation

304

A BUSY MONTH.

pay five dollars, with such monthly stipend oa may be fixed upon ; that there
shall be a stated meeting of the general committee, not oftener than once a
month, except in cases of necessity ; that this association shall not lose its
identity, but exist in all its properties, liable to be called into action whenever
necessity may require , therefore,

" BcmIvcJ, Thai the Committee of Vigilance shall sti'l continue under its
present organization ; that the present order of business shall continue, and
no meeting; shall be called of the general committee except on urgent busi-
ness to be determined by the executive. That the said executive or a quorum
of five meet every evening, at the place to be designated, and there receive
reports and attend to such matters as may como before them. That the ser-
vices of a sergcant-at-arms under salary be dispensed with ; that the duty be
placed on one of the Committee, who may retain the man George, or some
other person in our employ, to take care of the room and attend the door.
That tlie proceedings of the present Committee sliall bo engrossed, and taken
charge of by them for such future action as may be taken. That the qualifi-
cation committee shall bo merged in the executive committee, and that no
new member shall be sidmitted except through and by the executive com-
mittee under such rules and regulations as they may hereafter adopt. That
there shall be a finance committee, whose business it shall bo to take or re-
ceive all moneys, and make disbursements on orders from the executive, signed
by a quorum. Also, that the executive committee shall have power to dis-
po.se of all surplus property, the proceeds of the same to be paid over to the
treasury, and to fill any vacancies that may occur in their midat from the
general committee."

On another occasion it was resolved,

"That the deliberations of this body should be marked with dignity and
solenmity, commensurate with the nature of the subject before- them. That
all loud demonstrations of approval or disapproval are undignified and in-
compatible with the true spirit of deliberation, and arc hereby declared out
of order in this Committee That any person offering an indecorous remark
to a speaker engaging t* attention of this Committee shall be forthwith
expelled from the room. "

It was also resolved,

"That when a prisoner was delivered over to the charge of the chief of
police of this association such prisoner should be considered the property
of this Committee, and should not be released unless by the action of the
executive committee or by a vote of the general body."

The black sheep of the fold were soon detected,
summarily dismissed, and narrowly watched. The
following, from the minutes of July 5th, shows the
shape in which complaints against members some-
times came up:

" Received communication of William C. Graham, No. 152, being a com-
plaint against W. F. McLean, No. .530, he not being cousidercd a fit member

THE COUNTY JAIL.

805

liliief of
operty
of the

icted,

The

the

kome-

; a com-
[jember

of the Vigilance Committee. No. 152 states that this morning, about two
o'clock, found No. 539 standing at the door conversing with two policemen,
and heard him say that it was a damned infernal shame, the action of the
Vigilance Committee in the cose of Goff; it was a damned imposition, luid ono
he would not submit to; and further stated that McLean said the day they go
to put their decision into execution that he would have the boys about and
release him."

Among the other excuses of delinquent justice, and
by no means one of the least reasonable, was that of
inadequate prison facilities.

Watkins, a genteel young man, sentenced by the
court of sessions to ten years' imprisonment for bur-
glary, openly boasted before Sheriff Hays that no
prison in California could hold him. His friend and
confederate. Brier, also thought his own confinement
would not be long or severe. These dashing pro-
fessionals took a philosophic view of chance, skill, and
result; if foiled in wise attempt, or if captured when
nothing more was undertaken than a fair business
risk, they submitted to imprisonment with character-
istic good humor. Hanging more seriously inter-
rupted their occupation, and hence should be avoided.

In the earlier epoch of city government a large
appropriation had been made with which to build a
jail; but, as was usual in such cases, it had all been
filched by official fingerings before it could accomplish
its purpose. A committee was appointed to investigate
these frauds, but they had been sufficiently well man-
aged to escape such dm ection as should fasten the guilt
in any responsible qua . cer.

The necessity of securing felons when caught was
daily felt more and more. In May and June the
(3scape of prisoners was so frequent that the sheriff
was obliged to brinjj: all his lodjjers at night into the
main room of the building, and station policemen at
different points to watch them. Under this arraiigo-
m'" . in many instances, a little money, or a bottle or
two of brandy, was the price of liberty.

On the 30th of June a large number of the Com-
mittee, by invitation of the sheriff, visited the county

Pop. Tmd., Vol. I. 20

306

A BUSY MONTH.

jail, then in course of erection and partially occupied.
The Committee expressed themselves as pleased with
the general aspect of the place, and admitted the
urgent necessity of the speedy completion of the build-
ing. But the city, already bled to dryness, could not
do more. Money there was none, and promises the
builders had no faith in. Fifteen thousand dollars
were needed at once, and if this was raised the citizens
would have to do it. The Committee at this time
numbered five hundred active members; the requisite
amount divided among them would leave to each thirty
dollars to pay. Or to achieve a quick practical result,
the fifty members of the executive, each assuming three
hundred dollars, could settle the matter in an instanl.
At the meeting of the 5th of July it was resolved,

"That aa the amount wanted by the sherifiT to complete the gaol could be
made up by each of our members obtaining ten subscribers at three dollars
each, a committee of the whole take up subscriptions for carrying out thin
object."

Thus the much needed and long delayed work was
quickly, easily, and cheaply done. If all the affairs of
government to-day were taken from the great un-
washed, the illiterate, the dishonest, the irresponsible,
from selfish scheming professionals, and placed in the
hands of the few most interested in the true welfare of
the country, the matter of our governing, federal, state,
and municipal, would not cost one fifth its present
assessing.

Forms printed in the following words were circu-
lated for subscriptions:

" PROPOSED PLAN FOB COMPLETING THE OOPNTT JAIL.

"We, the subscribers, citizens of San Francisco, hereby agree to pay to
the Committee of Vigilance, of said city, the sum of three dollars each, to
be appropriated by said Committee, and disbursed under their direct super-
vision, for the purpose of completing the county jail."

The money was paid over as the work progressed,
the last of it not being required until September, as
the accompanying order shows :

PiUJ-SIMILE OP A MONEY ORDER.

307

308

A BUSY MONTH

llll

ill

Early in July was brought the first of those an-
noying lawsuits against members of the Vigilance
Committee of which there were so many during the
year succeeding the great work of 1856. This suit
was entitled Metcalf versus Argenti, Atkinson et al.,
and was brought in the superior court of San Fran-
cisco, Justice Smith presiding. It appears that one
Peter Metcalf, a carman, agreed for the sum of fifty
dollars to take charge of four loads of furniture and
wearing apparel during the great fire of the 22d of
June. When called on to return the property he
producvjc " ee loads, excusing himself from not re-
turning ti fourth on the ground of confusion and
loss during the exciting scene. Suspicion was aroused
no less by the man's contradictory statements than
by the fact that out among the sand-hills was found
a richly furnished house, containing some twelve or
fifteen trunks filled with new and valuable wearing
apparel, fire-arms, and other property, unquestionably
stolen during the fire.

The Committee of Vigilance, on being informed of
the facts, set themselves at work to find the guilty
persons, and in accordance with their custom they
took the path that seemed befoi : them straightest to
the mark, and that without consulting custom or
asking permission of the law. Suspecting Metcalf,
they entered and searched his house. For this the
carman demanded before the court twenty thousand
dollars.

Owing to certain delays the trial was not begun
until the 16th of August, and it ended the 23d. At
a mooting of the Committee, held the 5th of July, n
resolution was passed as follows :

"That a committee of three be appointed to wait ou Mr Metcalf, and on
Messrs Lockwood, Tilford, and Randolpli, acting as counsel for the prosecution
in the caae of Metcalf versus Argenti, Atkinson, anc' others; and they are
hereby directed to request those gentlemen to withdraw the suit and all
further proceedings in the matter."

At the same time was adopted the following pre-

THE TRIBUNAL ARRAIGNED. 809

amble and resolution, which appeared in the public
prints :

" It having become necessary to the peace and quiet of this community
that all criminals and abettors in crime should be driven from among us, no
good citizen, having the welfare of San Francisco at heart, will deny the
Committee of Vigilance such information as will enable them to carry out the
above object. Nor will they interfere with said Committee when they deem
it best to search any premises for suspicious characters or stolen property;
therefore,

"Resolved, That we, the Vigilance Committee, do claim to ourselves the
right to enter any person's or persons' premises where we have good reason
to believe that we shall find evidence to substantiate and carry out the object
of this body ; and further, deeming ourselves engaged in a good and just cause,
we intend to main*^iin it.

"By order of Thb Committke of Vigilance.

"San Francisco, July 5, 1851.

No. 67, Secretary"

In every large and promiscuous body of citizens
there are some whose judgments are ill-advised and
whose actions are too impetuous. The publication of
this resolution was certainly injudicious on the part
of the Committee. Its members would have known,
had they carefully considered the matter, that no
good could come of it, and much evil might be the
result. The suit was brought by a poor carman
against members of a powerful association, through a
prominent law firm, whose fee, almost of a certainty,
was contingent. Under such circumstances any over-
tures on the part of the association could not but be
damaging to the defendant. As a matter of course
the client would be governed by his counsel, who if
they were gentlemen would give gentlemanly answers,
or if blackguards they would reply accordingly.

In this instance the repl}' of the law firm to the
appeal of the Committee for a dismissal of the suit
illustrates more fully than could any words of mine
the character of the men composing it. Says the
lawyer Lockwood in the journals of the day: " Sundry
tools or knaves, perhaps both, styling themselves
the Vigilance Committee, have caused to be trans-
mitted to the firm of Lockwood, Tilford, and Ran-

310

A BUSY MONTH.

dolph, the following resolution [given above]. As a
member of said firm, my only answer to the aforesaid
fools or knaves, in addition to the verbal response to
the bearers of the resolution, is, I do defy, deny,
spurn, and scorn you."

The formal reply of the firm displayed a spirit but
little more decent or truthful :

■

"San Fsanoisco, July 7, a.d. 1851.
"Gentiahbn:

"We have received with astonishment a communication through your
hands, purporting to be an extract from the minutes of the proceedings of a
certain association styling itself the Vigilance Committee, in which we are
requested to withdraw the suit which we have instituted in behalf of Peter
Metcalf versus F. Argenti and F. A. Atkinson.

" We forbear to remark upon the folly, the presumption, the ignorance of
your own powers and of our character, and the entire disregard of the con-
stitution and laws, and the rights of your fellow-citizens, which that com-
munication betokens.

" You will, for our answer, say to those who sent you, that we need no
advice, and will submit to no dictation from the Vigilance Committee, col-
lectively or individually ; and that they may rest fully assured that we will
prosecute the suit of Metcalf versus Argenti and Atkinson, and all other suits
of a similar nature in which we may be employed, with the utmost of our
ability and to the end of the law.

"We remain, your obedient servants,

"E. A. LooKwooD,

"F. TiLFOBD,

"Edmund Randolph.
" To Messrs Sharron, Curtis, Bromley, and Spence, Committee. "

The result of this trial was a failure of the jury
to find a verdict. Nine were in favor of acquitting
the defendants, and three held out for nominal dam-
ages. The case was then taken to San Jos^, where
the jury found for the plaintiff in the sum of two
hundred dollars.

The speeches of the respective members of this
law firm on these two several occasions are models
of verbiage. Nothing could injure a cause more
effectually than such advocates. Listen : " Men and
brethren, awake from your false security 1 Heed not
those hireling and corrupt editors, who persuade you

PROFESSIONAL RANTING.

811

bing

to surrender to the patriotic and disinterested Vigil-
ance Committee the custody of your character, your
property, your Uberty, and your lives. Heed not the
crocodile lamentations and hyena bowlings over f>etty
crimes, of those vampires who at midnight drain the
stream of life in your midst, and at mid-day repeat
their horrid orgies with triumphant demonstrations.
Murder, murder ten-fold more damnable than fel-
onous individual homicide, stalks your streets; not
shrouding its hideous aspect in murky darkness; not
screening its blood-stained hand in secret lurking
places; but with brazen front, in the open glare of
day, defying and trampling upon your constitution
and laws, and laughing to scorn the solemn mandates
of your highest courts of judicature."

Again: "What have those mushroom noblemen,
those sweet-scented, starch-collared, counter-jumping
aristocracy, who in one short night, by the foul
purchase of a goodly quantity of dirty ink and print-
ing materials, became suddenly metamorphosed from
cheating haberdashers and close-fisted, soulless money
dealers, into an august body of patriotic noblemen;
in the name of sense, what good have they accom-
plished for the community that they thus, with
haughty and supercilious air, challenge for them-
selves the highest niche in the pantheon of our
plebeian affections?"

On the subject of domiciliary visits in this connec-
tion, the Herald of the I7th of July makes the
following pertinent remarks:

"Domiciliary visits constituted the bugbear got up as an argument
against the Vigilance Committee, and it was represented in proclamations and
charges to grand juries as a tremendous stretch of power to seoi'ch the crib of
a confederate of thieves for property stolon from honest citizens, a power ex-
ercised in every state in the Union, and in every country in the world wh' ro
there is a police, and one which should be exercised by the police of this city
if they properly discharged their duty. By the exercise of this power we
remember that one police-officer recovered after a fire, about six months ago,
something like twenty thousand dollars' worth of property secreted in houses
on the outskirts of the city. It is a power which no honest man need dread,

812

A BU8Y MONTH.

and which has never been exercised by the Committee except for the detection
of crime or the recovery of stolen property. The stress laid on this thing by
Mr Campbell and Mr Brenham is therefore very gratuitous. They should not
have permitted themselves to give expression to such platitudes. But the
present bugbear is constituted authority. With the voice of a Cassandra and
the tears of a Pecksniff one of our contemporaries lugubriously deplores the
calamity that must follow a disregard of the sacrodness of the judicial cliar-
acter, to wit, a disregard of the sacredness of Parsons. The courts must not
be interfered with ; they must be permitted to conduct business in the old
way, or the consequences to the community will be ruin and disaster. The
argument, in brief, is : The Committee must cease from the good work they
have in hand, or society will be thrown into chaos, and confusion and anarchy
will reign supreme. The old regime of the slnng-shot and the bludgeon must
be restored in San Francisco in order that officials may live. The city must
be periodically fired, houses must be robbed, safes broken open, citizens mur-
dered in the streets, bribery and false swearing must be encouraged in the
courts of law, and villainy of every caste and character must be permitted to
run riot in San Francisco, else there is to be forsooth an upheaving of society,
and a prostration of all the fabrics of civilization and morality. The citizens
are called upon to show their respect for courts by sacrificing their lives to the
assassin, and what remains to them of their property to the incendiary and
burglar. We need not ask the Committee not to suffer themselves to be ca-
joled into breaking up their organization. They have no intention of so doing,
and least of all, in answer to such representations. The citizens do not wish
to be again abandoned to the tender mercies of corrupt and treacherous officials,
or to have the city again swarming with miscreants of every grade. If tho
authorities feel hurt that the citizens take the law into their own hands, let
them resign. They know they are thoroughly and heartily condemned by the
people. They whine about their power being trampled upon. We say again,
let them resign. OflSce in their hands has brought forth no fruits but im-
punity for crime. An organization of criminals in our midst has been nursed
and fostered into growth and vigor by the guilty connivance of men in office.
Ample space and verge enough has been affoi'ded the thieves to carry on their
extended and systematic schemes of villainy. That is what law has done for
us. Do the authorities imagine the people will suffer the city to relapse into
this condition?"

CHAPTER XXI

OPPOSITION TO VIGILANCE ADMINISTRATION'.

PatriotiBm is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Dr Johnson,

I HOPE I shall not be misunderstood, or accounted
loose or lawless in my conceptions of constitutional
and statutory government, when I uphold, as I am
constrained to do, the people of California acting as
Committees of Vigilance in their several emergencies.
Forms of government and rules for the regulation of
judicial proceedings are essential to civilized society.
Christ's millennial reign has not yet begun upon this
planet. Until that time, or until the curses of law
and government are no longer necessary, I hold them
in profound estimation, for they are the savior of life
and property. Evils they are, and given us for our
sins; yet being necessary evils, should we not rather
call them blessings, and not evils at all? So, indeed,
we do call them when they are good ; when bad, they
are the evil offspring of their grandam evil.

I say that I respect law and government, lawyers,
law- makers, and governors — when they are respect-
able. In law and politics there may be, and are,
honest men; just as in stocks, railroads, banking,
butchering, carpentering, and white -washing, there
may be, and are, dishonest operators. All the good
men are neither crowded in nor crowded out of
any one profession or occupation. As a rule the
judiciary of England and America are as able and
upright men as under the present economy their

(313)

814

VIGILANCE ADMINISTRATION OPPOSED,

Maker can expect them to be. Among the legal
profession of my acquaintance there arc those, nnd
many of them, as high-minded and noble men as ever
lived; men who would lose a right hand before it
should subscribe a lie, or a tongue before it should
counsel dishonor. These men, lawyers, judges, gov-
ernors, for their spotless purity of character, their
integrity and ability, I bow before. I honor them for
themselves, more than for the office they hold. Gold
is but gold, even though it be made into a calf.
Furthermore, I can safely say that there never have
existed on the earth free governments better adapted
to their respective peoples than the governments of
England and America. And to these I am over
ready to pay allegiance, as in duty bound. The good
man is in duty bound to respect the government
under which he lives, because by and for the righteous
element of the commonwealth it was established. The
virtuous citizen will not overthrow the law, because
for his protection, as against vice and criminality, and
at his cost, it was and is made and sustained.

It was not law and government that the vigilance
men complained of, but the lack of these. In the
outskirts of our civilization it has ever been the case
that the restraining influences of government are
necessarily weaker than in central societies, where
forms are more settled, officers more watchful, and
the machinery applied more perfect and smooth in
its running.

California committees of vigilance were composed,
for the most part, of men of good parentage and an-
tecedents, who had not departed from the faith of
their fathers. They were men of conscience. Respect
for their Maker and for his ministers, sacerdotal,
judicial, and legislative, had been early and continu-
ally instilled into their minds, made a part of their
being, and was their rule and watchword at the time
and in the midst of their most determined opposition
to crime as much as at any time before or since.

FORM AND SUBSTANCE.

315

They who opposed independent action in the emer-
gency were such as in religion, politics, and society
respected form more than substance. They were
image -worshippers whose idolatry had long since
ceased to carry them beyond the symbol of their faith.
They were of the class to whom in the church purity
of belief and holiness of livinof were of less moment
than time-honored tenets, formulated creeds, and
church ceremonials. From childhood, by precept and
example, their minds had been moulded into set forms.
Form was ever uppermost in all their thoughts ; they
could see only form, handle only form, and conceive
only form. Shadow, not substance, was the calibre
of their imaginings. From the soul of things tlieii-
souls were forever barred by the skeletons of dead
maxims. They could not think beyond the crust that
interposed between their minds and eternal realities.

This, then, was the diiference; one contended for
the supremacy of form while the other saw only the
substance. One would see perish the substance if
only the form was maintained; the other would sacri-
fice the form, if need be, to the reality.

Between these two parties was to be fought. the
battle for the vindication of the right or principle of
the movement. Naturally enough ministers and bene-
ficiaries of the law regarded the interference of lay-
men with an evil eye. Though powerless themselves
with their rusty machinery to protect society, anarchy
and annihilation should come rather than the fair form
of their ancient idolatry should be desecrated by the
polluting touch of the uninitiated, or the ermine of
the bench be soiled so long as its purity should be in
their keeping.

At this time it was the habit of those .vlio favored
the Vigilance Committee to rendezvous informally at
the Union Hotel, while the law and order party held
their caucuses on the corners of the street in front of
some saloon. There they meditated upon the un-
happy fate of a people who had not such as they to

316

VIGILANCE ADMINISTRATION OPPOSED.

rule over them, and speculated upon the proba-
bilities of official profit and loss in these degenerate
days.

But so sudden and so strong was the blow struck
by this organization of popular will, and so pusillani-
mous the law and its officers, that at the first there
was but little opposition to the action of the Com-
mittee. However unpleasant the pill, they took it;
howsoever they complained among themselves, few at
that time broke out m loud opposition. The governor
of the state, the mayor of the city, the sheriff, police,
and most of the lawyers and judges, were silent as to
the proceedings of the Committee of 1851. Some
offered gentle opposition, protesting merely to keep
up an appearance ; others were earnest or obstinate in
the discharge of their obligations to the law; but all
were reticent, all guarded well their speech.

Like Csesar prostrate with disease, majestic law
was now most humble; it remonstrated, but with
benignant mildness ; it resisted, but so gen^ as to
invite rather than repel advance — for w con-

sideration the people were devoutly thankfui.

There is no special blame to be attached to the
better class of the law and order party, to those
who honestly believed that the interests of the state
demanded implicit obedience to legislative enact-
ments, and that the letter of the law was paramount
to the spirit of the law. The several classes of this
party viewed the question from totally different stand-
points.

Beorinnintif at the lowest class : Criminals themselves
regarded law-courts with favor, because they were
their shield, their protector from popular fury, their
father-confessor and absolver. To the moneyed mur-
derer the courts offered absolute immunity from pun-
ishment. Not only this, but trial was equivalent to
amnesty; the jury's verdict was the general pardon
that consigned to oblivion past offences. This is no
random statement; the fact is fully substantiated by

DISTORTED JUSTICE.

817

the criminal statistics of the time,
of July 4th:

Says the Herald

" It is now fourteen inontha since the district court went into existence.
And during the period from April 20, 18o0, to May 23, 1851, the whole
number of persons committed for trial at that court amounted to one hundred
and eighty-four. It is a startling fact that of this number but nine remain
now in custody, paying the penalty of their offences. Seven have been dis-
charged by tlio grand jury, six have died, and two have been pardoned.
Besides these nine some few others of the one hundred and eighty-four are
in prison awaiting trial ; but of the whole number, nine only are in custody
under sentence. Forty have been mlmitted to bail, and doubtless will never
again be heard of. Sixty-one have been acquitted and discharged by order
of the court, and twenty-one have escaped and have not been retaken. "

Petty and poor offenders only were punished. Able
counsel was secured by money, false witnesses were
suborned, and judges and jailers made lenient. I do
not mean to say that all officials, nor the half of them,
were open to bribery. Tliore were some as pure
judges on the bench then as now. Yet money, if not
directly, then indirectly, would buy acquittal or pardon.
Looseness and generality characterized law proceed-
ings. Money would impanel a jury favorable to the
accused; if not at the first, then the case would be
postponed from time to time, until characters suited
to the emergency of the case could be installed as
jurors. All the technicalities of court procedure
were employed for the acquittal of the accused.
Criminal cases were held in abeyance until witnesses
could be spirited away. So that criminals and all
those who lived by crime, either as its defenders or
prosecutors, wore from the very nature of the case
opposed to any interference on the part of the people.

Then there were the higher classes of various
grades who opposed the vigilance movement from
principle. From their youth they had been imbued
by precept and example with the importance of
forms, until the essence of things had become second-
ary. And as well might we look for water to refrain
from seeking its level, as that class-bias, and party-

318

VIGILANCE ADMINISTRATION OPPOSED.

( :

bias, and the bias of education, even in minds learned
and discriminating, should leave opinion untram-
melled. It is so easy to think ourselves honest and
intelligent in our beliefs where interest and pride of
opinion are at stake, that we should condemn only
where we are willing to be condemned.

In my dealings with the law and order party I
hope I shall do them no injustice. That I shall not
be influenced by feeling I am sure, for I entertain no
animosity toward them, or any one of them. I have
many friends and not a single enemy in their ranks ;
and while I would not willingly wound the feelings
of any, I deem it my duty, here as everywhere,
plainl}'^ to speak the truth as it comes to me — else I
cannot write.

Pet names were given the opposition by the appre-
ciative people, who in this manner often come nearest
the true character of a man or measure. They were
playfully called * law and disorder party,' * law and
murder party.' The law party was indeed without
order, and the order party without law ; one was law-
less, but loving order; the other full of law, but lack-
ing order. To one of the judges of the supreme court
was given the sobriquet * Mammon,' and to another,
* Gammon.'

Several cases of poisoning came up about this time,
which, from their nature and the inability of the
courts to reach them, called forth the following from
the editor of the Picayune, the 1 3th of June :

" To know that such a transaction occurs in the heart of the city, and is
let pass without examination, without investigation of any sort, is suflS-
cient of itself to drive an outraged and injured people to the wildest acts
of desperation. Numbers of persons condemn the action of those who on
Tuesday night hung a wretch, guilty of arson and murder in one continent,
and of burglary, at least, in another. For our own part we regret that the
trial was conducted in secret, and by persons who were not delegated by the
people to act as jurors ; but when either the law is so imperfect or the ad-
ministration of it so lax as to suffer such deeds as the two recorded above to
be perpetrated, without not merely punishment, but investigation ; when it
is knoMm that within the past twelve months fifty-four murders have been

THE BRODERICK CREW.

319

committed in San Francisco, we cannot wonder that honest men should be
driven into taking the law into their own hands, into constituting themselves
judges and jurors, and protecting themselves, wlien the law fails to do it, by
executing summarily persons detected in the commission of crime. A great
outcry has been made about the danger of secret societies acting in the
manner in which the Committee of Vigilance did on Tuesday night. Certain
timorous gentlemen seem to fear that they themselves, though guiltless of
crime, will be suddenly hurried oflf some dark night to a lonely place in
Happy Valley, and without a chance to speak to friend or family be choked
to death by Mr Samuel Brannan. Certain legal gentlemen, with an acute-
ness for which they are remarkable whenever their interests ai'e endangered,
(•ncouraged this belief; and the consequences are that a matter which should
have been dropped at once has been kept in agitation for several days.
The good eflfect which the lynching might have had on the rogues and
villains around town will all be dissipated, and the murderer and burglar
will walk around more daring than ever when they know that to the
sympathies ot the scoundrelly they can unite the folly of a large portion
of the honest citizens. For our own part we do not stand in any very great
fear of Mr Brannan ; we are inclined, too, to think Mr Ward quite a gentle-
manly and quiet personage ; Mr Battelle we don't consider a desperado ; nor,
in fact, in reading over the names of the Vigilance Committuo do wo see one
man who is quite as bad as Windred, Stuart, or Adams. lu fact they are all
pretty decent fellows. Neither do we fear that this Committee is going to
prove an inquisition in the city, nor its members decemvirs. Such a thing
will never be iittompted here, and if it were, the gentlemen composing the
Vigilant Committee would be the first indignantly to frowTi it down. We
liave no fear that an honest man is going to be hanged at midnight by them ;
and we confess the weakness of going to sleep with a greater feeling of security
from the knowledge that some of the members may be undor the window.
The secret society which is dangerous here is not this association of respect-
able citizens, but the organized band of Sydney scoundrels who meet at the
foot of Telegraph Hill and in back alleys near Pacific street. These men wo
dread ; and we have some little fear, likewise, of those men who make a rule
of standing between justice and the people on nearly every occasion. "

There was a strong opposition to the organization
of 1851, of which Broderick and his political retainers
were chief; but so secret and so rapid were the move-
ments of the Committee that the men of law and
order did not know when or where to strike. Had
it been known how few were actually engaged in the
execution of Jenkins he would probably have been
wrested from them by the officers of the law and the
movement crushed in its incipiency. Unlike the
more substantial and sedate organization of 1856,

320

VIGILAXCE ADMDflSTRATION OPPOSED.

whose strength lay in its moral anil intellectual
solidity, the material composing the Connnittee of
1851 was somewhat mercurial, though wily enough
to do its work and talk of the consequences after-
ward.

David C. Broderick in the early part of his career
was a professional politician of the New York type,
rough and self-reliant; honest as a rule in his in-
tentions, but often erroneous in his opinions. Born
in Washington in IS 10, lie was taken by his father,
a stone-cutter, to Xew York in 1825, where, when
grown, he kept a drinking-shop, ran with a fire-engine,
and manipulated primaries. Arrived in California
in 1849, without education, but with marked ability,
he became a hard student and let fly his ambition,
which carried him at length to the United States
senate. Possessed of many objectionable qualities,
he was not without redeeming traits. His ambition
Avas laudable, his perseverance indomitable, and his
habits exemplary.

On the 9th of July a meeting was held at the
house of the Saint Francis Hook and Ladder Com-
pany, with Broderick, McHenry, Bioe, Randolph,
and Duane as speakers. Resolutions were submitted
which were to be presented to the city officials for
their signatures, pledging the sigrxers, so far as lay in
their power, to prevent the infliction of punishment
without due process of law, rallying to the support
of the threatened, and defending him with their
lives.

At the autumn elections an independent ticket was
nominated by those who regarded party distinctions
in the political contests of this coast as obsolete and
foreign to tlie interests of the commonwealth. This
movement was charged by their opponents upon
members of the Vigilance Committee, who by thus
employing their organization for the furtherance of
their power were said to be but fulfilling their chiefest
aim entertained from the begiiming.

POLITICS DECLINED.

821

Never was a statement more absolutely foreign to
the fact. All the interests and instincts of the class
composing the vigilance association were opposed to
meddling in politics. Money was what they wanted ;
protection for their property, and that safety for
themselves which would enable them to increase it.
It was a lack of that which was now charged upon
them — interest in the affairs of the government —
that had brought all this trouble upon them. If
from the beffinnino: the members of the Vi<xilanco
Committee had done their duty as citizens, and voted
honest and efficient men into office, there would have
been no need of their organizing a special crusade
against crime. As it was, they utterly repudiated
the act and intention charged. At a meeting lield
the 26th of August the Committee refused to recog-
nize the ticket in question, or any other ticket, and
resolved forever to abstain from any participation in
politics.

" Whereas," said they, " it is with deep regret that
we learn that a political ticket for the coming county
election has been put forth purporting to emanate
from certain members of this association; and be-
lieving it ruinous to the objects of our formation for
us to recognize any ticket of a political cliaructer,
resolved, that this Committee disavow all participa-
tion in the formation of the said ticket, and wish it
distinctly understood that they will in no manner
lend it their countenance or support as the Com-
mittee of Vigilance."

The 18th of June an inflammatory handbill was
posted about the streets, calling an anti-vigilance meet-
ing the following Sunday afternoon. It is remarkable
neither for its logic, good taste, nor truthfulness:

"MASS MEETING TO SUSTAIN LAW AND OIIDKR.

" TIio people of the city and county of San Francisco, republicans one and

Jill, arc called upon to choo',e now, ere it is too late, which they will serve — the

liuv and order power of our city, or the dictators and anarchists who have

lately disgraced our city by their lawless and criminal procecduigs, and are

Pop. TiiiB., Vol. I. 31

322

VIGILAKCE ADMINISTRATION OPPOSED.

yet endeavoring to assume unlimited and unlawful power in the punishment
of criminals. Even now they are going from door to door, from city to city,
soliciting desperate men to join their secret Committee, with a view to transfer
the criminal jurisdiction from our legally constituted tribunals into their owni
irresponsible hands, thus subverting all goveniment, all law, all justice, as
made and provided by the United States and our own state constitution.
Will ye. lovnrs of law, and order, and social compact, longer tolerate such men
in their creer of murder and subversion of tiic laws, among whom are those
guilty cf the very crimes they j)rofess to punish? Shall it be said that our
police is not of sufficient force to arrest these murderers, and our city officials
shall wink at their outrages, thus perjuring themselves? Shall we tolerate,
in this enlightened age, a Danton, a Robespierre, or a FoucIk^, and all the
paraphernalia of a secret inquisition for the suppression of our laws and
criminal courts? Then to the rescue of law and order from the hands of a
.secret inquisition, every good citizen, and without further invitation turn out
en wnHxe to a public meeting to be holden on the plaza, Sunday next, June 22d,
at three and a half o'clock, r. ir. , and there join in the general opposition to
the acts and further operations of midnight murderers ; and lot the civilized
world know that we can and will support law and order, and that our social
compact shall be as much observed by the wealthy criminal, public robber,
and law subverters, as by the lowly thief.

"Many Citizens."

It is said that tlie mayor interposed his influence
to suppress this movement, on the ground that no
benefit would come of it, but that on the contrary
such a proceeding would bro'^d only greater confusion.

"In the official report," says the Hercdil of August 5th, "of the pro-
ceedings of the Young Men's Democratic Association at their meeting on
Saturday evening, we find the following : ' Mr Randolph oflfered the following
resolutions, which were seconded but lost :

" ' Hmolred, That a true democrat must hold the constitution and the laws
of his country inviolably sacred, and scrupulously respect the forms of le'jal
proceedings, whorol)y life, liberty, or property is to be effected. That ve
■will not give our support to any candidate for any office who individually or
as a member of any association has systematically and with premeditation
abridged any of the chartered liberties of the citizen, and especially who has
resisted or evaded the great writ of hahi'ix enrpm, or has hold persons to
answer for capital or other infamous crimes, otherwise than on presentment
and indictment by a grand jury, or has denied them the assistance of counsel
f)r the right of trial by jury, which the constitution of our state declares
shall be secured to all and remain inviolable forever ; or who has counselled
or approved, aided or abetted any other person in doing any of these things.'

"This places the question fairly before the people, and wo wish nothinj,^
liettcr than that the issue may be made in tiie next election. The Star says
the resolutions wciv lo.^t, but we hope the association will revive them, and

THE MAYOR SPEAKS.

323

cither repudiate or avow explicitly the principles thoy contain. Some of tho
gentlemen on the democratic state ticket, among them Mr Heydcnfeldt, tho
candidate for judge of tho supreme court, have approved and ahetted the
course of the Vigilance Committee. We desire now a distinct avowal on tho
part of the leaders of the democratic party whether those gentlemen are to
be blackballed by any portion of their own paxty at tlie next election ior the
expression of their opinions. "

The mayor of the city issues his pronunciaiaento in.
terms following:

"TO THE CITIZENS OF SAN FRANCISCO.

" We have arrived at an important crisis in the civil and social condition
and prospects of our city. A voluntary association of men has been formed,
under peculiar bonds to each other, >ind assuming most extraordinaiy and
irresponsible powers, and has undertaken to institute extra-judicial pi'i-
eiedings in forms not known to the laws. This association claims ■••ud ex-
ercises the right to inflict penalties upon those adjudged by them guilty of
crime, even to tlie ]>cnalty of death, and has publicly and boldly inflicted that
penalty in two inst^iuces.

"Tliey claim and exercise the right of domiciliary visits, without any
accounta)>ility, of a character not known under iiny other than inquisitorial
governments. The great and s icred writ of habeiis corpux has been rendered
by them incHectual, and the authority of the highest tribunal of the stat<!
disregarded. Tlie circumstances in which tho authorities ar.> placed in con-
sequence sei.'m to demand of me, as the constituted chief magistrate, some
action l>y which the views and purposes of the city govonuncnt, over wliieh
r have 1>eene;tlled to preside, may be indicated to the citizens, to the country,
and t J the world. The people of the United States, of whom we are proud
to be considered a part, have always attributed their eminence above almost
iiiiy other people in the scale of freedom and security in their rights to the
fact that they live under a government of laws of their own v'oluntary adop-
tion. Tlie people of California have taken perhaps a more conspicuous place
than those of any of the sister states, under a full recognition of that repub-
lican medium of public authority and of common protection. The several
departments of the only government which any man among us can possibly
acknowltdge Iiave been created by tlie constitution and laws, to wliich you
as well as the public officers Jiave given a common assent. These departments
liave been committed to the administration of men taken from among your-
selves, and they have entered uj)on their trusts, do.ibtless, with a firm reliance
upon the loyalty of their fellow-citizens to the constitution uid laws for a
steady support in the exercise of their respective functions. The obligation
of such a loyalty on the part of the people is unquestionably as imperative upon
them as any of the obligations of the laws can be upon those who are in-
trusted with their public administration ; and tlie violation of obligation on
the one side is as disastrous to the community as the abuse or pe.varsiou of
official station can be on the other. The idea that any defects in the law, or

32t

VIGILANCE ADMIXISTRATIOX OPPOSED.

any incompetency of its execution, can he remedied l>y voluntary associations
of citizens, assuming a superiority to the laws, is not onlj' preposterous, but
implies an abrogation of all law, and resolves society into a state of perfect
anarchy. The result is inevitably the same, however intelligent may be the
inind.«, pure the motive, or temponirily beneticial the acts of those who become
80 associated. In a community like ours, where the institutions of govern-
ment have but just been established, any combinations of citizens for purposes
not authorized by law, and whose proceedings arc not controlled by law or
subservient to the support of constituted authority, can have no other than
an insurrectionary tendency throughout the commonwealth, and must to an
absolute certainty inflict disgrace upon us in the estimation of our country-
men in other parts of the Union, and ruin the confidence which it is of first
necessity to our prosperity to secure throughout the commercial world. With
these views I feel impelled, by the strongest sense of official duty, and by
every consideration for our common welfare and public character, to call upon
all citizens to withdraw from such association, and to unite in a common
cfTort to support the laws and to sustain a prompt and energetic administra-
tion of them in their proper application and action. In addition, I deem the
present a proper occasion to announce, in the most distinct terms, that I shall
not shrink from a prompt discharge of the duties which the statutes of the
state and the ordinances of the city have made imperative upon me ; and that
there may be no misapprehension in respect to what these duties m.iy be, I
have to call the attention of all citizens to the provisions of the act to regu-
late proceedings in criminal cases, chapter iv. I, however, appeal to the good
sense and deliberate judgment of my fellow-citizens to relieve mc, and the
other public functionaries of the city, by their common submission to public
order, from the necessity of any application of the requirements of that act.

" C. J. Brexium, Mayor.
"Matjor's Office, July 11th."

From the report of the grand jury for the special
July term I extract the following:

" There is another subject to which our attention \\n& been directed by the
presiding judge, in his able charge, which has occupied much of our time and
serious consideration. It is well known that a largo portion of our best and
most worthy citizens have associated thcmsolvca together, and witliout the
inter\x'ntion of our legal and constituted tribunals entered upon the investiga-
tion of tn'iminal charges against several persons, and executed sentence of
condcnuiation and death. Wlicn wc recall the provisions v' the constitution
of our govcrnmcut, which it is the bounden duty of every citizen to support
ami ijiiiiutain, tliat no person shall be lield to answer for a capital or otlicr-
M iso infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury,
nor \w (lii)rived of lilV, liberty, or property without due pioeess of law, and
lintl ;il.j() the same pr()vi>iou and language in our state constitution, we feel
c(jU\ iiici'd, doubly (.onviuccd, while wc believe tlie members of that associa-
tion liave been governed by no improper motives, that their proceedings ai'c

THE GRAND JURY.

325

Tinlawful and in ^•iolation of the fundamental law of the land. We fear, too,
the powerful example of those proceedinga may engender a spirit of insubor-
dination, or afford a pretext to other individuals or associations hero or else-
where in our state, who may not be governed by the same honest motives, or
restrained by the same careful investigation of facts, for the perpetration of
deeds of violence, which may lead to anarchy and abuses dangerous tf) the
lives and property of citizens. When we recall the delays and the inefficient,
we believe that with much truth it may be said the corrupt atlministra-
tiou of the law, the incapacity and indifference of those who are its .sworn
guardians and ministers, the frequent and unnecessary postponement of im-
portant trials in the district court, the disregard of duty and impatience
while attending to perform it manifested by some of our judges having crimi-
nal jurisdiction, the many notorious villains who have gone unwhippcd of
justice, we are led to believe that the members of that association have been
governed by a feeling of opposition to the manner in which the law has been
administered and those who have administered it rather than a >lcterinina-
tion to disregard the law itself. Under institutions so eminently popular as
those under which we live, the power of correcting all these abu.tcs is with
the people themselves. If our officers are unfit for the stations tluy imiipy,
if the laws are not faithfully executed, if an an-aigned criminal i)rocun.'s his
own friends to be placed on the jury that tries him, where is tlij fiuilt, and
where is the remedy? If those of our citizens who are most iiittrostcil in
lifiving good and wholesome laws, and in seeing them purely adininistiTcd,
will not give sufficient attention to our elections to procure proper and sober
legislators, judicial and other officers, and neglect to obey the mandates of our
ci)ui'ts when summoned as jurors and witnesses, as has been too often the case,
can they expect to see justice prevail? And is it not in the neglect of their
duties in these important particulars they may find the true fountain., from
whence have sprung manj' of the evils we have stiffered? The grand jurors,
l)elicviiK,', whilst they deplore their acts, that the associ.ation styling them-
selves the Vigilant Committee, at a great personal sacrifice to themselves, liave
been influenced in their actions by no personal or private malice, but for the
best interests of the whole, and at a time, ton, when all other means of pre-
venting crime and bringing criminals to deserved punishment had failed, hero
dismiss the matter as amtuig those peculiar results of circumstances that
.sometimes startle conununitics which they can neither justify nor by ,i jirc-
Kcntment effect any benefit to individuals or the country, and with the
assurance that there is a iletorminntion on tiio part of all well <lisposod eiti/.-^ns
to correct the abuses referred to by selecting proper ollioers to take the ]ilricos
of those who have violated their trusts, .-uid by perfonning each his part in tlie
iiihninistration of the laws. When tins is done, the axe will h.ive bctii '.aid
at the root of the tree, tlic proper remedy applied for tiic coiToction of tlio
grievous evils our city and county have so long suftV'red, and there will be no
necessity for the further action of that Committee. To them we are indibted
for much valuable information and many important witnesses."

In answer to this comes Levi Parsons, judufo of iho.
district court, and asks the court of sessions to strike

326

VIGILANCE ADMINISTRATIOX OPPOSED.

out that portion of the report wliicli refers to the dis-
trict court. In his motion the learned judge indulged
in several assertions, to which the jury took exceptions
in the followinor terms:

" The undersigned, members of the late grand jury, deem it due to them-
8elvc3 to correct a few uiTors, wilful or otherwise, of the honorable Levi
Parsons, judge of tho fourth judicial district, made by him in his motion
before the court of sessions, to strike out certain portions of said grand jury's
report. Tho assertion that the names of but two witniisses were endorsed
on th -' back of the indictment of Hall and Spiers is correct. The assertion
tliat but two were examined, .md that the jury had listened to outside evi-
dcnee, is false; and tliey believe the honorable judge knew it to be so wlicn
be uttei'od it, it having been explained to him by one of the jurors, previous
to the visit of tlie honorable judge to Sacramento, that by some mi.stakc —
easily made in the press of business — tho names of tlie other witnesses were
accidentally omitted. He also stated that he had received a note from the
grand jury, disapproving of a certain or certam jurymen then trying tlic
above ease. This statement is wilfully and unqualifiedly false, no com-
munication liaving Imen sent the honorable judge by the grand jury, either
otlicially or individually. "

The court of sessions denied the motion of the
district judge holding that the grand jury possessed
the undoubted power to examine the conduct of public
otiicors and to express their sentiments on all public
affairs. ,'

Immediately after the execution of Stuart a fresh
charge was given the grand jury by the court of
sessions. The charge from which I extract the fol-
lowing was made by Judge Campbell, an able and
upright man. And what he says is true so far as it
goes. He throws off a series of general ])ropositions,
but hai'dly touches the real points at issue. To charge
the people with murder was simply judicial mud-
lliiiging; and to speak of liberty, constitution, and
legal safeguards in the connection was but a little
more of that political fustian of which the people
were alread}^ too tired.

" The court deem it their duty to call your attention to an event of tho
most startling and fearful character. Wo are informed that, yesterday, a
person by the name of Stuart was t'lkeu by an organized association to tho
Market-street wharf, in thi.s city, and there hanged by them ; that a large force

CIIARGK OF JUDGK CAMPBELL.

(if

fol-

Liid

ind
ttlc
Iple

the

the
Iforce

j,iiartlo 1 t)ir w'.n-f to prevent tho success of any attempt which might he
made by tho puhlio olUcera or citizens to vindicate the law and rescue tho
deceased. Tliis outra'^e took place in the open day. It is wholly without
I'xcusc or juatilication. The qiiUiitiou haa now uriaen whether the laws made
by the constituted authorities of the state arc to be obeyed and executetl
or whether secret societies arc to frame and execute laws for the government
of this country, and to exercise supreme power over the lives, liberty, and
property of our citizens ; whether we arc now to abandon all those principles
which lie at tlie foundation of American law, and are the birthriglit of every
citizen, which from the earliu.st period of American history up to the present
time have evci' bi/ini cherished by the good, the wise, and the greit. Arc the
people willin;,' to throw away the safeguards wliich the experience of ages has
proved necessary, to triimplo the laws and constitution underfoot, to declare
that law is inconsistent witli liberty, and to place life, liberty, property, an<l
loputatiou at tho jnercy of a secret society? If such bo the disposition of
tile people; if the .Spani:ili UKjiiisition is to be revived hero, with all and more
tii.an all its former tcixors; if without, or in deliancc of, all legal ])roeess, by
tho mere order of a committee, men arc to be aiTcstcd, .secretly tried, .and
suddenly executed ; if the tap of a bell is to be the signal for hundreds of
armed men to a.s.semble iustantly together, and to execute, in open day, tlieir
unlawful and treasonable designs, it is time for every man who values his
life, siifety, and honor, to shako the dust from his feet and seek out some new
homo where he may hope to enjoy the blessings of liberty under tho law.
IJut if, on the other hand, ^VG have not quite forgotten the principles upon
which our government is formed ; if we believe that the constitution and laws
of our country should be reverenced and obeyed, and that public order ami
tranquillity sliould be preserved ; if we believe that persons accused of crime
should have an open, public, and impartial trial bj' a f.air jury of unpreju-
diced citizens, and should have a reasonable opportunity of making their de-
fence, of employing counsel and summoning witnesses: if we believe that the
gooil name and reputation of our citizens is to be protected from a secret
scrutiny, \\h«rc accusations arc made under the influence of fear, by persons
of questionable character; if we believe that our houses are to be protected
from nnreasonable searches, without color of authority, i.; is onr solemn and
l)onnden duty to take immediate and energetic measures for the suppression
of the spirit of reckless violence wliicii (jverrules thu laws and sets the con-
stitution at defiance. When you lir.3t asseml)lcd, the court called your atten-
tion to the unlawful execution of a man named .Jenkins by an a.ssociatiou nf
citizens. Wo considered tliat act as greatly palliated ^y tho eircum.stanees
imder which it was committed ; that the laws had been defective, and that
pcrliaps there had been some laxity in their administrat'on; that the county
had no suilicieut jail for the detention of prisoners; that crime had increased
to a fearful extent, and th.it a portion of the citizens, deeming that the law
afforded them no protection, had in tii.at instance undertaken to execute what
they conceived to be summary justice, in Wolation of the law, but with .-i sincere
•lesire to .advance the ])ublic uitercsts. We further stated that the law h.ad
Ix.'cn amended in many respects, so an to .secure tht- speedy trial and con-
viction of offeiidcrs, ami in aomc c-uc; vJ ineicasc tho measure of their

328

VIGILANCE ADMINISTRATION OPPOSED.

punishment ; that the county jail had been put in a proper condition for the
Haf<!-keeping of prisoners ; and we expressed the hope that no further attempts
would bo made to interfere with the legally organized tribunals of justice, or
to \vre8t from them their just powers and attributes. From the time of your
assembling the court, the grand jury and all the officers have been actively
and constantly engaged in the performance of their duties. At the time when
they were making every possible efifort to dispose of the criminal business of
the county, and when the court was in actual session and in the performance
of its duties, an association of persons, of armed and organized men, have
undertaken to trample on the constitution, defy the laws, and assume un-
limited power over the lives of the community. There is no excuse or pallia-
tion for the deed ; it is a gross and glaring outrage ; it seems to have been
done for the express purpose of hurrying on a collision between the courts,
and all fond of law and order on the one side, and the association referred tu
on the other. If the deceased was guilty of any crime, he could have been
immediately indicted, and within a week, or at most ten days, tried, con-
victed, and sentenced. Public justice could have been vindicated without
infringement of public law. Every person who in any manner acted, aided,
abetted, or assisted in taking Stuart's life, or counselled or encouraged his
death, is undoubtedly guilty of murder. It is your sworn and solemn duty,
which you cannot evade without perjuring yourselves, carefully and fully to
investigate this matter, and to do your share toward bringing the guilty to
punishment. Upon your fearless and faithful discharge of the sacred trust
confided to you depends in a great measure the future peace, order, and
tranquillity of the community. "

Coiumenting on which the Herald of July 14tli

says: i

" We would fain forbear commenting on Judge Campbell's charge to the
grand jury ou the execution of Stuart, but its judicial chijiaoter gives to his
speech on that occasion a gravity and importance that must render any
erroneous views ho has taken exceedingly unfortunate. It would take much
of I'xtKivagfiiice to lessen in the smallest degree the great respect cntcrtaineil
for Mr Campbell by his fellow-oitizens. In addition to the warm personal
esteem with which he is regarded, tlie most implicit contidence is reposed in
his olUcial integrity and zeal ; but in this charge we rc^'iet to say that he has
ussuincil positions wholly unwarranted by any legal necessity, and wantinj,'
tliat equitable and common-seu <e regard to tlic exigencies of society which
in every free country sliould mould and fashion the action of the judiciary.
Tlie judge is reported to have stigmatized the execution as an outrage, with-
out o.'ccuse or palliation, and every person who iu any manner acted, aided,
abetted, or assisted, or counselled, or encouraged, as undoubtedly guilty of
murder. We remember in this city many instances within tho last year
wherein good worthy citizens, who had never offended against the law, and
were useful members of society, were foully nmrdered for gold ; we remember
when Captain Jarvis, thiin whom a more manly, honest, kind-hearted man
ncv(;r lived, was struck down by the kuife of the assassin at his own door,

JUDGE C.VMPBELL CRITICISED.

329

with his infant in his arms and his wife by his siile ; the murderers wore
never stigmatized by the presiding judge with half the rigor exhibited in this
charge of Judge Campbell against the Vigilance Committee for the publio
execution, after a fair trial, of a despcmdo whose lifu front childliood had
been a long series of bold and successful crimes. Now wo will take theso
two homicides, phrasing them legally, and we ask Judge Campbell if by any
process of reasoning he can satisfy any rational being that one is equally cul-
pable with the other? Again, the severest punishment which could be inflicted
on Stuart was death. The punishment of murder is death. But crimes de-
serving an equal punishment should be of equal atrocity ; therefore, in Judge
Campbell's view, there is no difference in guilt between the member of the
Vigilance Committee, who never committed a crime in his life, but who was
present at the trial and execution of Stuart, and Stuart himself, whose soul
was callous with a thousand crimes. Can he prevail upon any grand jury to
entertain so extraordinary a proposition? But this is absolutely nothing to
the inconsistency which follows. We believe there are between eigiit and
nine hundred men in the Committee. Besides these there were at a low cal-
culation two thousand five himdred persons present at the execution. It is
quite safe to say that three thousand persons witnessed the occurrence. Theso
three thousand persons did not make an effort to arrest it, did not protest
against it, did not by voice or gesture or word or deed oppose it. They are,
therefore, accessories, and according to the judge's charge undoubtedly guilty
of murder. He adds that it is the sworn duty of the grand jury, a duty they
cannot evade without perjury, to do their part toward bringing those persons
to punishment — that is, to indict tliem for murder. If, tlien, it be tlic
duty of the jury to indict them for murder, and if they be guilty, as the
judge solemnly pronounces them to bo, it is not for the idle ceremony of uii
indictment and trial, it is with a view to their punishment, tliat tlie gi-au<l
jury are instructed to bring in an indictment against those three thousand
persons, and tlie punishment of murder is death ; therefore it is the punish-
meut by death of tlireo thousand citizens which tlie judge's charge involves,
or, omitting the spectators, of nine hundred meu composing the Committee,
and all for such a man as Stuart, a thing of course never contemplated by so
kiiid-hcarted and benevolent a gentleman as Judge Campbell, who, apart from
the discharge of his judicial functions, estimates, we liave no doubt, as highly
as anybody the beneticial results of the Couimittee"a action. Tlie judge could
not then have charged the jury with the intention of having iuilicted on these
nine hundred men the punishment of death ; and therefore his charge, so far,
could not have meant anythuig. But is it a fit time to make charges tiiat
mean nothing, replete, too, with unmeasured denunciations of a large body of
litizens? We have not space to take up all the points in the judge's charge,
l)ut passing by minor things we come to this sentence: 'It seems to have
lieen done for the express purpose of hurrying on a collision between tlie
courts and all fond of law and order, on the one side, and the association re-
ferred to on the other. ' And a collision would have involved most probably
ti\e loss of many valuable lives ; and it is of this monstrous crime the judge
acciises the Committee ! Can he entertain the belief that a purpose so fiendish
would liave been coldly determined upon by nine hundred of our most esti-

■■•I

330

VIGILANCE ADMIXISTRATION OPPOSED.

inal>In citizens? But tlio jii(l<,'c charges the jury that such Hcenied to )w tlieir
intention, and according totlio order of the charge the iudiotmcnt woidd l>o for
wilful murder, witli intent to coinuiit a hreacli of tlie peace. Wluit nlmll wo
iuiy of tliis charge but tliut we reject it an apocryiilial, and that wo luuMt
bflievo the report to bo iuaeeurato and unjust. After all, let us ask in all
candor what moral wrong haa yet been done by the (^omniitteo? Society has
Ik'cii freed by death from two pests who made a livelihood by the de.ith and
robliery of the citizens. Four men who kept places of rendezvous for nuir-
derers, burglars, i.nd incendiaries have been sent out of the country. Has
society lust by tlie occurrences? Is there anything coiuiectcd with the lives
of those exccuteii which can excite synipatliy, or of those baiushed to cause
regret for their exile? The lives of those two men were long since forfeited
to the law, and any citizen would have been justiticil in killing them who
had detected them in the perpetration of any of the hundreil crimes tiicir
liaiiiU were stained with. Had the law been administered properly they
would have lon;^ I'nce died by the hands of the executioner. What moral
VTong, then, hci'i been committed? The law has been violated, it is n!i v'crcd.
Ay, the law ; but the Sablw th wjvs made for man, and not man for the SablMith .
and the citizen is not made for the law, but the law for the citizen ; and when-
over the law becomes an empty name, has not the citizen the right to supply
its deficiency? What more shall we say but that, though ditl'ering on every
point from the views held by .Tudge Campbell in his charge, we nevertheless
would not breathe a oyllabh; to shako the conlidenee that is justly reposed in
him, and which he has already earned by his learning, industry, and in-
tegrity, and his freedom from all vices, faults, and defects which disfigure the
character of other members of the judiciary."

H. S. Brown, associate justice of the court oT .-.u^
sions, viewed the matter in a most sensible lij^lit. The
day after the execution of certain criminals by the
Vigilance Committee he sent in his resignation, and
for the following pertinent reasons:

■'Notwithstanding scores of criminals have been tried, convicted, and sen-
tenced, and the criminal calendar nearly cleared, yet the people, without the
form of law, arrest, try, and execute their fellow-men. Twice, yea thrice, has
tins been repeated while the court was doing ail in its power to arrest crime
and bring offenders to justice. On each of these occasions the cause assigned
has been tlic inefficiency and weakness or corruption of the courts. Now if
the people have lost all respect for those who lill judicial places, believe them
eorrui)t, capable of being seduced by glittering gold, or if they expect that
courts, acting under the solemnity of an oath, can wilfully violate the lirst
principles of law, and disregard testimony, then I hold that it is the duty of
t!i<! members of the various courts to i-esign their position, that new ones may
be placed in their stead in whom the people have conlidenee, or elect those
who have no conscientious scruples in punishing those who may be charged
with (rime, wliether convicted legally and in accordance with the testimony ur

GOVKRNOR McDOUfJrVL.

3.11

« thciv
I \w for

liall wu
0 must
: ill Mil
icty liiis
!ith nnd
or tnur-

^. llliS
,liu livu.s

to caUHi'
Forfciteil
icm who
loa their
i-ly they
at mui'iil
n 'vcrod.
8aW)ath ,
lul wheii-

to snpi'ly
on cvury
^'crthcless
•cpoaed in
, aiul in-
ligure thu

b. The
by tlio
III, autl

not. After the Heonca of ycaterday, coupled with the avowals as to the ciinsr
na tlioy appear in our public priuta, I wonM not longer occupy the position I
hiivu had for thu untold wcnltii of Califurniii. I trust, sir, tliu Nturin-oloud
may pons, tliut order and liurniuny may reign ; but I tremble lest iudiscrutiuu
plunge us into bccnc of bloodshed and discord,"

John ^McDougal, fjovcrnor of tho state, hc\n>y duly
inlorniod of the cf adition of alfiiirs, in conforinity witli
his duty issued a pnjthuiiation warninj^ all good citi-
zens to al)stain from unlawful acts and from unlawful
comhinations. 13ut upon (ixainination ho soonied satis-
fied that the work nropf)sod by the Committee would
bo benelicial to public interests, and that an armed o])-
[josition would be harmful; and it was so agreed with
the executive that the work should go on, and that lie
would interpose no active opposition on the part of
the state so long a^i the operations of the Committee
should be confined to the sphere indicated, unless some-
thing then unforeseen should compel him to ado[)t a
diffei'ent course, in which event he would give tluMii
due notice.

Accordingly, throughout the active existence of
the first Committee, the governor properly main-
tained the attitude of nominal opposition only, thus
to maintain the dignity of the state, but found no
occasion to resort to active measures against the
Vigilance Committee.

The governor was severely reprobated as a generally
bad character by tho press and people both of the
cities and of the country. Yet so far as his official
acts and attitude toward the Vigilance Committee are
• •oneerned, I cannot see wherein he overstepped the
Itounds of magisterial propriety, unless, indeed, it was
\N hen he approved in words of the doings of the asso-
ciation and bade them G(xl-speed.

It was not, however, his pretended opposition to
the vigilance movement which was contemptuously
regarded, but the ease with which he pardoned
notorious offenders, convicted after great labor and
expense.

VIGILANCE ADMINISTRATION OPPOSED.

Following is the governor's manifesto;

"ExECTTTivE Depabtment, Valiejo, July 21, 1851.
"To the People of t/ie State of California:

"It has been represented to me that organizations of citizens styling them-
selves vigilance committees have been formed in various portions of the
state and assume powers inconsistent with the existing laws, and serious ap-
prehensions arc entertained of collision between the constituted authorities
and the citizens thus organized; and it becomes my duty to take some step
by which so great a calamity may be averted. It is earnestly hoped that a
few simple and practical suggestions may serve to secure this desirable end.
No security of life or property can be guaranteed except the constitution and
laws are observed. Let these be forcibly dispensed with, their sacrednesa
violated, and submission to their authority refused, and we are reduced to a
state of anarchy more dangerous in its tendencies and probable results than
the worst laws under our system can }K>s8ibly be, no matter how corruptly
administered. We are just entering upon our career ; our character is not yet
formed, and people from all climes and all countries are flocking to our shores.
It then becomes us to take no unadvised step which shall retard our progress
now or prejudice our claims to a high and commanding stand hereafter.
But more than this, we owe it to ourselves to impress upon the strangers who
have settled amongst us, unacquainted with and perhaps entertaining preju-
dices unfavorable to the practical operation of our peculiar institutions, that
our governuicnt is a government of laws, and that though tliey may some-
times prove inade(piato, soinctinies operate oppressively or bo admiuistcrotl
corruptly, the remedy is not in a destruction of the entire system, but is to
be scoured by a peaceful n-sort to those constitutional means which arc
wisely afforded to reform whatever abuses may exist and correct whatevci-
errors may have been committed. The occurrences of the past three or four
wei.'ks, the apprehension of individuals within the jurisdiction of legally con-
stituted tribunals, their trial, sentonoo, .lud execution, v/ithout authority of
law, liy a voluntary a.ssociation of citizens, who thus virtually place them
selves above and beyond all law except that prescribed by and for themselves,
■will prove suliiciently prejudicial to our interests abroad, conmicrcial and
otherwise, if sueh organizations, assuming such unouestionably dangerou.s
])owcr8, were now dissolved; but if continued there is no calculating the ex-
tent of the injury which may result to us as a state. The dangerous tendencies,
in other re.<pects, of organizations of the character under consideration, tlii>
excitement produced in the public mind conseciucnt upon their action, I'csist-
ance to the eon.stituted authorities, which must almost inevitably result, and
threatened collisions between themselves and officers of the law in the exeeu
tlon of their duties, cannot but be appreciated and deprecated by every right
thinking and patriotic citizen of the state, and need not, therefore, bo dwelt
upon here. Whatever may have been the exigency heretofore existing,
recjuiiing, or supposed to reijuire, the iuloptiou of extraordinary measures on
the part of the citizen, it has now happily in a great degree passed, anil
such measures should, on this acco\nit if on no other, be at once abandoned.

THE HERALD'S REPLY.

333

Another criminal code, with more efficient provisions, attaching adequate
penalties to the commission of ofTences, and directing a more prompt and
effective administration of justice, has gone into operation. Courts are now
enabled to try, sentence, and execute aa the offence deser\'es ; safe and secure
prison houses are being provided, and the olBcers, there is reason to believe,
iire ready and anxious to discharge the high duty imposed upon them by the
lieople. I cannot do less, therefore, than earnestly recommend to my fellow-
citizens everywhere throughout the state to aid in sustaining the law, for in
tliis is our only real and permanent security. Associations may be organized,
but they should be formed with the view to aid and assist the officers of the
law in the execution of their duties, and act in concerc with the civil authori-
ties to detect, arrest, and punish criminals. By pursuing this course mui-h
good may, and undoubtedly will, be accomplished, and all the dangers which
threaten unlawful assumptions of power thus averted. Inefficiency will not
then secure impunity to crimes, nor dangerous criminals be permitted to go
uuwhipped of justice. It is my sworn duty to see that the laws are executed,
and I feel assured that all good citizens will cordially cooperate with me in
its discharge.

"John McDouoa;., Governor. "

uistertHl
t>ut is to
licli arc
whatever
or four
Lily con-
lority I't
them
mselves,
cial au'l
ngerois
the ox
ilcncio?^.
ion, tilt'
resist -
nit, auil
execH
■y right
jc dwelt
•xisting,
surea on
led, anil
idoned.

On this the Herald of July 23d remarks:

"This communication is styled a proclamation by the democratic organ,
but we presume this to be a mistake. It doubtless was not intended as such
by the governor, as it bears none of the marks or signs of such a document,
except that it is rather weak and is dated from the executive department.
The suggestions, for any practical effect, are as harmless aa a bread-pill, and
beiug emanations of the executive mind they will doubtless be receive<l by
the people to whom they are addressed with respectful indifference accord-
ingly. We are by no means disposed to find fault with the governor for
l)iitting these suggestions on paper and publishing them. It is not every
Kovernor who has sufficient strength of minil to enable him to resist the temp-
tation the occasion throws in his way of uttering half a column of wise saw
and modem instance advice ; and the fact that the premises on which this
ruunscl is based are erroneous, or rather that the necessity urged for its utter-
iiuce is imaginary, but renders its promulgation the more innocuous. Tlie
letter is a very mild letter, and in its tenor pointless and Pickwickian as could
lie desired. If all Governor McDougal's ollieial and uaothcial acts are ns in-
nocent as this epistle, he will go out of otiico a very jiopuliir governor indeed.
Tiio governor, liowever, us we have said, falls into a grave mistake, lie
JiUeges that apprehensions are entertained of a collision between the consti-
tuted authorities and the citizens, and declares his suggestions are thi'owa
out with the view of averting this calamity. We assure tlje governor tiiat
•siieh apprehensions are wholly groundless, and the authorities, if tliey enter-
t.iiu them, may set themselves entirely ut rest as to tiie oceuneneo uf sueli a
eatastrophe. Tlie Vigilance Conunittee have avoided it from tiie commence-
nu'ut. Tliey have treated the writs and other i)rocess of tlie courts with
I milked respect and deference. The officers of the law have been received

334

VIGILANCE ADIkriNISTRATION OPPOSED.

if' '

at the committee rooms with signal courtesy, and no interference has been
attempted with the culprits already in the hands of the judges. If any eflfort
haa been made to produce a collision it has not been made by the Committee,
and should any yet be made and be aucessful, it will be without their instru-
mentality. But of such a result there is not the slightest probability, and
indeed scarcely a possibility. The moderation which has hitherto character-
ized the course of the Committee will still mark their progress to the end.
Their prudence in the past is the strongest guaranty for their prudence in the
future, and the band of criminals which infested our coimnunity being ut
length broken up, the functions of the Committee will by degrees assume the
character not only of a detective police but also of an organized censorship
of the courts. We cannot believe, then, that the authorities will seek a col-
lision with the Committee, as there will be no pretext for such a course ; and
both parties strenuously avoiding it, the governor will see that there exists
absolutely no necessity for his suggestions. It is needless, therefore, to go into
the merits of his advice. One impression of the governor we desire to set
right. He says there is every reason to believe the judges are ready and
anxious to discharge the high duty imposed on them by the people. This \h
but partially correct. The community have every confidence in Judge Camp-
bell; they have none at all in Judge Parsons, and so of others. Let tlm
obnoxious judges resign the trust they have abused, and there will be no ne-
cessity thereafter of executive pronunciamentos to uphold the dignity of the
bench."

' fi^ I

CHAPTER XXII.

WHITTAKER AND McKENZIE.

"Arcades ambo," id eat, blackguards both.

Byron.

Hetherinoton, in his evidence at the trial of Stuart,
gave one Sam Whittaker the credit of being the
smartest thief in the gang. He had been transported
for life in 183(5, and sent from England to Sydney,
there to figure as a gentleman and prince among the
convicts. However proud Whittaker may have been
of his talents among friends, he did not relish tlicir
discussion before the rogue-exterminators, with a
manacled comrade doomed to death standing by to
give particulars. So he thought best to take a trip
down the coast. Assuring the delectable Mrs Hogan
that he would meet her at San Diego, h(^ started on
liis journey by land. But the vigilants were soon on
liis track, and the authorities along the route had
warning of his approach; he thereupon changed his
tactics and went north, to throw them off the scent,
still determined, however, when once he had baffled
thorn, to proceed southward. His movements were
i'ollowed, and McDuffie and others were appointed a
conunittee to go in search of him. They went first
to Stockton, and thence to Chinese Camp. They
scoured the country round Jamestown, Ceorgetown,
and Shaw Flat, hearing of liim occasionallv but with-
out further success. From the Stockton Conunittee
of Vigilance they took a letter to the Vigilance Com-
mittee of Sonora, where every facility and encourage-

[335]

336

WHITTAKER AND McKENZIE.

ment was given them. Their search, however, was
fruitless, and they returned to San Francisco and
reported to the executive committee the 19th of
July.

All the while the game was in the neighbor-
hood, eluding search. Hethcrington was right in
giving AVliittaker credit for ability. It was a most
difficult and dangerous feat, that of flitting from place
to i)lacc among a community of armed miners, every
one a self-constituted special police. But Whittaker
did not leave Sacramento until the 29th of July.
He then took a southerly course, and all went well
as far as Santa Barbara. There he was recog-
nized, arrested, and sent back by steamer to Sau
Francisco.

One morning — it was the 11th of August — as
James C. L. Wadsworth was sitting in his office, in
the old California Exchange, on Kearny street, Joseph
C. Palmer, of Palmer, Cook, and Company, entered
and stated that Sheriff Hearne of Santa Barbara
county nad a moment before been in his office, mis-
taking it for the office of Colonel Hays. He had
brought from Santa Bdrbara a jjrisoner named Whit-
taker, whom he wished to deliver to the sherift'
of San Francisco county. Palmer explained to him
his mistake, directed him to the sheriff's office, and
then immediately stepped over and informed Mr
Wadsworth.

Whittaker was then on board the steamer Ohio,
lying at Long Wharf Wadsworth hurried down, and
meeting on the way James F. (Jurti.s, induced him to
assist in taking Hearne's prisoner to the Committee
rooms. Arrived at the steamer they found the captain
at Ijrealdast.

" Captain," said Wadsworth, "you have Whittaker
on board."

" What's that to you?" growled the captain, in
aflable ba,sso profunda.

" We want him," said Wadsworth, significantly.

BROUGHT TO BAY.

337

Ohk\
i\, and
jim to
luittoo

iptaiu

ttakcr
iiu, in

" Have you authority to take him?" grinned the
captain.

" Yes."

" Go down in the hold and get him."

Descending, they found Whittaker with his legs
ironed.

" Get up and come with us," said Wadsworth.

"Where to?" demanded Whittaker.

" Up town to a safe place," replied Wadsworth.

Whittaker assented, but on reaching the wharf held
back.

" Where are you going?" said he.

"Come along; it's all right," was the reply. lie
went without further opposition, hoping, yet fearful,
and was marclied straight to the quarters of the dread
Committee of A'igilancc.

When Wadswoitli returned to his office the Santa
Bdrbara sheriff was there awaiting him. Hearne was
neither offended nor chagrined, but seemed to accept
what had been done as right and proper. He seemed
only concerned about ])ay for expenses incurred in
bringing up the criminal; and when Wadsworth told
him if he would execute a writing formally delivering
the prisoner into the hands of the Vigilance Com-
mittee he would pay the amount, Hearne unhesi-
tatingly did so, and Wadsworth immediately paid him
the money.

On the next page is given a fac-s'tmile of the bill
by the steamer Ohio for the passage of Hearne, his
deputy, and Whittaker.

Another old offender, Robert McKenzie, or Mc-
Kinney, was caught and incarcerated, and Mrs Hogan
was made to attend the call of tlic executive com-
mittee. McKenzie and Whittaker both made confes-
sions, each unknown to the other. The confession of
each was submitted to the other, and both to Mrs
Hogan ; Stuart's confession was likewise submitted to
all, and all were verified. McKenzie, who was arrested
at Sacramento, had taken part in the Minturn safe

Pop. Tbib., Vol. I. 11

338

WHITTAKEB AND McKENZIE.

THE LAW AROUSED.

339

robbery, and made the tour of Trinidad. A number
of persons about this time were shipped out of the
country; one Otis, a horse-thief, was convicted and
hanged by the people at ^lonterey.

There were two classes of the Sydney fraternity,
representing the brain and muscle powers respectiv cly.
The former active, bright, and shrewd, skilful in plot-
ting and bold in executing; in conversation intelligent,
in manner affable, and in dress genteel. These were
the leaders. Those of the other class were inferior
and born to obey. The former were gentlemen forg-
ers, highwaymen, and safe-robbers ; the latter bruisers,
slung-shot strikers, and pick-pockets, of low tastes and
brutal demeanor. To all these liouieless and forlorn
rascals California was a godsend; a worthy land; a
country fit to rob, and — be hanged in!

Whittaker, like Stuart, belonged to the knightly
order of scoundrelism ; McKenzie was base-born and
churlish. Ryckman says: "McKenzie I took to be
an Irishman; he was a miserable specimen; a mon-
strous, cowardly wretch. Whittaker was as brave as
Caesar; lie was the only man wliose execution I re-
gretted; he exhibited so much manliness that he won
my admiration."

The Conunittee now besfan to surrender its criminals
to the courts; and the alacrity with which the law
seized its prey showed present hunger and fear of
famine, while the new life infused into drv bones and
the rapidity of movements under the stimulant given
1)V the Committee, and the fear of ultimate loss of
occupation, was wonderful to see. Instance the case
of Jinnny-from-Town, one of the Stuart brotherhood,
surrendered by the Vigilance Committee to the sheriff
at one o'clock on the morning of July 24t]i, 1851, and
by eleven o'clock the same day the grand jury had
found an indictment, and had the trial fixed for the
following day.

About onr o'clock on the morning of July 21st
Charles Duane, sometimes called Dutch Charlev,

.'t40

WHITTAKER AND McKENZIE.

Knight of tho Bloody Fist, with Ira Cole, his squire,
forced his way into a dancing-room on Commercial
street, and denoting his intention to kill a Mr Ball,
who had called in question the purity of the shoulder-
striker's reputation on certain occasions, proceeded
forthwith to attack that individual. After permitting
the man of injured honor to knock down and nearly
kill his enemy, the company finally placed him under
arrest. He was tried and convicted of assault with
intent to kill. But was he punished? This was an
aggravating case. Duane was an old offender; the
assault was made with scarcely any provocation. The
desperado, being angry, sought the shortest way to
relief. He had caused the community and the Com-
mittee much trouble at various times. He was ar-
rested and tried; objections were made to every
member of the Vigilance Committee summoned to
serve as juror.

The courts, though gladly accepting aid from the
Committc in the capture of criminals, still regarded
its members more in the light of outlaws than good
citizens. Convicted at a term of the court of sessions
of assault with intent to kill, Duane was sentenced
to one year's imprisonment, but was pardoned by the
governor. The pardon called forth several adveise
comments from the press, and the people at large
were disappointed. "Qui pardonne aisement invite
a I'offenser," says Corneille. But little cared Mc-
Dougal for abstract principle. Could he be governor
and leave a friend in prison ? Says the Herald of the
10th of September:

"In tho law intelligence will be found a report from the grand jury, pre-
sented yesterday to the court of sessions, censuring the executive for the
extension of a pardon to Charles Duane. Although we do not hold that the
governor of the state is bound on every occasion to vindicate his official acts
in the public journals, yet as Governor McDougal has already, in one instance,
made a public statement in justification of his reprieve of Robinson, we think
he should, in justice to himself as well as to evidence his respect for public
opinion, state publicly the reasons which have moved him to this exercise of
clemency, and the names of the citizens who signed the petition for this man's

PAYRAN AND RYCKMAN.

n4i

ivite

iMc-

trnor

the

discharge. We think so, because there is a strong feeling of dissatisfaction
in the public mind at Duane's liberation ; and in proof of the existence of this
feeling we would refer the governor to the report of the grand jury. This
city has recently passed through scenes of fearful excitement ; the man Duane
committed an ofTence which brought down upon him the intensest popular in-
dignation. The measure of his punishment, one year's imprisonment, scarcely
answered the requirements of this indignation. That this period should now
be shortened by the interposition of a pardon, has generated, as wo have said,
a feeling of deep dissatisfaction.

"God forbid we should l)e supiwsed desirous of interposing, as the advocate
of unrelenting justice, Ixitwecn the active exercise of humane clenieucy and
the man hurried by passion into uncontrollable excesses, and afterward con-
trite and repentant of his infraction of the law.

'The qiinUty of merry Is not titrntnnd;
It blcHKi'tli him that p.ivea nud him thut takes;
It U iin ittti'ibiite to Ood himself,
And earthly powi r ilotli then tihow likest OtxVs
When raircy Hcssons Justleo.'

"But here is a man regarded by the community as dangerous to its peace,
so constituted by nature as to be imablo to curb his own propensity to mis-
chief, and therefore most unfit to be flung into an inflammaljlo society, where
even the voice of the courts, hitherto tardy in administering justice to tlic
culprit, has adjudged him incapable, witliout evil cousctjucnccs, for twelve
months at least, of mingling freely with his fellow-citizens.

"The grand jury in their report say th.at 'the late act of the executive of
this state in pardoning a certain criminal after ho had been tried and convicted
of a wanton assault on a citizen, whose only offence connisted in a desire to
discharge l.'.s duty to the public, is such a monstrous abuse of the pardoning
power as to cause serious alann. If the prisons arc to bo tlirown open at the
will of the executive to men of such character, the judgment of the courts,
while acting in behalf of tlio people, will be set at defiance ; all protection to
unoffending and peaceable citizens will be withdrawn, and grand and petit
jurymen will have to protect themselves, not by the laws of the state, but by
force of arms.' When asked to give the names signed to the pardon the
governor declined."

When Whittakcr was brought into the Committee
room, Payran as usual began to examine. But tlie
arch-inquisitor on this occasion was evidently not in
liis usual happy catechetical mood. The bloody
l)rothers, as against the world, were most lovingly
united; but among themselves they enjoyed their own
little infelicities. Suh rosa, Mr Payran was not in
possession of his full magnetic powers that day. Ap-
jilying the loadstone of his wit to the porcelain surface

34-J

WHITTAKER AND McKENZIE.

1 11 1 I

of the versatile Whittakcr, no sediments of sin ad-
hered to it. A short, hollow negative was the only
reply he received to every question. To threats he
was as imperious as a steel-clad warrior to a shower of
feathers. Finally Ryckman took the impotent inquis-
itor aside and said: "Payran, this won't do. That is
no way to examine this man. You cannot intimidate
him. Do you not see that he is strongrwilled, fearless,
and of iron nerves?"

"Well," replied Payran, "examine him yourself, if
you like."

"Very well," exclaimed Ryckman, "I will do it. I
think I know more of human nature than you do —
to-day, at all events."

These sociot3'-woeders, some of them, entertained
no mean opinion of themselves. With experience and
power eamo pride of opinion, in which garb they did
not always appear to their best advantage. Ryckman
took a seat beside Whittaker and began :

" What is your nationality { '

" 1 am an Englishman."

" Have you a father living?"

"Yes."

"A mother?" '

"Yes."

"Any sisters?"

" Two," said the poor fellow, already softening.

" Whittaker," said Ryckman, earnestly, "what must
be the feelings of your father, mother, sisters, when
they learn of the awful acts and end of one they love :
con\ictcd and executed lor infamous crimes in a for-
eign land? Think of it — misery, disgrace, death!"

"0 God!" he cried, as if now, with the tears that
began to flow, his soul was wrenched from its fixed-
ness in sin, "I have been bad, very bad; but let me
tell you about it."

"Stop," said Ryckman. "Listen to me. Do not
make any confession with the expectation that it will
mitigate the least your punishment if you are found

THE HEART OF VILLAINY.

fuilty. I feel for you, but feeling and duty I divorced
efore entering upon this mission. I will leave you
now and return in an hour."

Ryckman sent him a mug of ale; then he took a
position at an aperture in the partition where he could
watch him unoLserved. The prisoner seemed much
disturbed, and at times apparently suffered great
agony of mind. Solitude seemed unendurable to him.
Long before the hour had expired, the door-keeper
appeared.

"Whittaker says he must sec you."

"What is the matter, Whittaker?" asked Ryckman
as he entered the room.

" Mr Ryckman," he exclaimed, "you arc the first
man who has ever touched my heart. The world has
hunted me as if I were a UKMistor; you alone have
spoken to me as to a human being. I mu.st make a
confession to you; if not, I shall burst."

This man and McKenzie were tried by the Com-
mittee in the usual way. But the great ulcer having
been opened through the medium of the arch-thief
Stuart, the later trials were void of interest or ex-
citement. The confessions are woithy of perusal by
those who care to know the character and course of
criminality in those days. What Whittak< i- says
of himself runs essentially as follows:

not

will

l^ound

"I left Sydney about two years ago by the ship Louisa, Captain Malor; I
arrived in Sau Francisco in August, 1849; I got my freedom from Governor
Fitzroy; it was a conditional pardon. The first business I began in San
Francisco was as steward in a public house kept by Cocksteiii, on Broadway;
I W!is in his employ about three months. After leaving him I bought u horse,
cart, and boat; employed men to work the team and bojit for two months.
Then I went to butchering in Happy Valley, and carried it on for a year ;
afterward kept a public house on Jaekson street, near Sansome, known aa the;
Port Philip House, with McConnick ; I gave it up at the end of two month.s.

" My name of Samuel Whittaker is assumed ; it is the mune under which 1
was transported. I desire to suppress my real name for family eonsideration.s,
and as an act of humanity. I liegan my career of crime in San Francisco at
the time I formed my connection with McCormick in keeping the Port Philii>
House. Before this, while butchering, I used to ride my horse two or three
times a week to the Mission Dolores to purchase cattle. Sancliez ofifered ma

WHITTAKER AND McKEXZIE.

a splekdid marc at one liundrcd and fifty dollars, which I refused to buy on
account of price. Jamca Curry came to me and said the mare was his. Finally
I bought the mare, saddle, and bridle for one hundred dollars, and Curry came
in with me. I paid him, taking a receipt for the some, then rode the mare
around; while doing so a man 8toppe<l mo and said the mare belonged to
Dutch Charley, was stolen, and had been advertised. Finding this true I gave
tip the marc and looked for Curry; found him, altered in dress, about to leave
town. I took him to EUeard'a, and there charged him with stealing the mare
and demanded my money Imck ; lie gave me sixty dollars. Then I took him
t<> Dutch Charley; Charley knocked him down and took him to the station-
house. The sixty dollars wns taken from me, to bo handed back after the
trial.

" I was summoned ; attendoil court; the trial did not come off. Jack Hay.s
put me on a jury to try a man charged with stealing a pistol; wo found liini
guilty, and he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for this trifling
offence. Court adjourned ; I was again summoned to attend court. I did so.
Curry hatl been let off ; his case was never tried. I demanded my money;
tlio ofHcials asked mo how long since I had given it up, I said about sixty
days; they laughed, and said it was lost in half that time. I mention this
to show how justice is administered here. It seemed to mo that a thief had u
better chance tliau an lioucst num. This took place in Levi Parsons' court,
■who was the judge.

"The lirst crime of wliicli I was guilty was that of robbing a bear-
hunter, named V'yse, the other side of the Mission. In that matter McCor-
uiick, McKenzie, Osman, Morris Morgan, and two Kings, were engaged. I
knew the bear-hunter, and McKcnxie also knew him. McKenzio took the
man into anotlier room; Morgan carried off the money, nine hundred dol-
lars or thereabout. When the bear-liuntoi- came )>ack to the room ho found
he liad been robbed ; wc professed we knew nothing alx)ut it. Tho money
was carried to King's house, comer of Broadway and Montgomcrj' streets;
but in coming into town one of the party stole six hundrc<l dollars ; when
tlic balance, three hundred dollars, was divided among us wc only got
thirty-five dollars each. The money taken from Vyse belonged to Kelly tlu'
lighting man ; shortly after McKenzio went to Sacramento and told Kelly
who it was that robbed him. Kelly came down fiom Sacramento on this
information, and had McCormick arrested and put in jail; I was then at
Monterey. They threatened to lynch McCormick, anil got from him some in-
strument by which they sold out tho Port Philip House to reimburse tho
loss. After this I went down to Monterey with Briggs and Osn'an; while
I was there T. Belcher Kay came down; Osman, Kay, and I \\ ,nt to San
.Jo.st5 ; there Kay ha.l the delirium tremens. Osman went to San Francisco,
where he met McCarty and Mclntyre, who told him to bring Jim Briggs,
Morgan, and me from Monterey, as they had a house to do that would yield
forty thousand dollars. Wc all went to San Francisco; I went in the Ooliah;
after receiving information as to which house it was, we all went to look at
it. Finding that Jimmy-from-Town was engaged, I refused to have anything
to do with it ; Morgan and Briggs also refused. I think the house was that of
•SchlosB Brothers; it was nearly opposite the old custom-house. At this

SOMETHING OF BURDUE.

345

time T. Belcher Kay was intorosted in arranging the robbery of the jewelry
establishment and other places.

"After this wo arrunged the robbery of Jansen's establishment; J.uisen
lived next door to me. Many persons from the colonies frequented my
house, and on learning that the country generally wanted sovereigns Janscn
told mo that he usually had them, thnt ho would bo glad to sell them, and
would bo obliged to me to take them. Morgan went with me into Jansen's
to buy somo sovereigns; this first gavo rise to the suspicion that Janscn
had a largo amount of money. Jansen was about to move ; Stuart, Edwards,
McCormick, and I planned this method of robbing him: one of tliu party
slipped a linciiyh: uat of the axle of the cart, on which the trunk contain-
ing tho money was to bo carried, expecting that by so doing the wheel would
como off, and on its falling wo would seize the trunk. Tho cart was loaded ;
Jansen's clerk sat on the trunk with a candle in his hand ; tho linchpin was
palled out, but tho wheel did not como oflf, and we were disappointed. Some
tinio afterwttitl, Stuart, Brings, Edwards, McCormick, Kay, Hughes, Morgan,
and I planned tho robben' of Janscn again, when wo ha<l better success.

" Wliilo at tho Port Philip House a man came in and a.sked me to trust him
for something to drink; I told him no, but I would give him a gluss of grog;
lie drank tho liquor, after which ho said to me, * You arc a iluinued clever
fellow,' and gavo mo three hundred dollars to keep for him. Afterward lie
called for tho money; ho was inebrifvted when I gavo it to him. There was a
man present whose namo can bo found on tho records, but which I forget,
who roblxjtl tho other fellow of his money and cleared out ; on tlic Sunday
night following he camu back to tho house ; I Kpoko to him about the moni'y
he had tiiken from the man, and asked him ' Whei-o is my share?' Ho told
1110 that he had left my part of it in the man's pocket for me to };et. I saiil,
' You wait until McCormick comes in.' However ho and another man closed
upon mc. I knocked them down and broke tho jaw of one in three {ilacrs.
Tic prosecuted mo for assault and battery. I was arrested, and employe d
Mr Wells; tho case was tried; I was fined ono hundred dollar i, ordercil 1,0
pay the doctor's bills, and to be imprisoned ten days on the pri;;on brig. I
had paid ^Vclls one hundred dollars counsel fee; I told him and 'i'llfor-l also
that it was inconvenient for me to leave my business, and that I should like
to compromise. Wells said it could be compromised for two hundred and
thirty dollars, which amount I paid. I xtato this case, also, to show tho
manner in which tho laws arc administered, and the corruption. H it had
not been for the manner in which I had been treated, and had seen others
treated, I should not no'A' bo here.

"Tho next matter in which I was interested and will bring Ijcforo you,
was that of Windred and Burduc. They were tried for having robbed .lansen,
ami convicted, but they hail nothing to do with it. I exerted myself vtiy
much to save them; I told Parburt they were innocent, but did not tell him
w ho were guilty. I had a long argument with Mr Theodore Payne alxiut it.
Stuart, and indeed nil engaged in the Jansen robbery, and many others, de-
clared their intention to bum the city in case Windred and Burduc were
executed; it was to bo fired at night in four or five dift'erent j)lace8. It was
tlie only time that I over heard the colonial i>cople speak of burning tho city.

948

WHITTAKER AXD McKENZIE.

"The next robbery planned by us was that of C. Mintum. Kay planned
this. Stuart was with lis. I was not interested in the robbery of tlie Hhip
Janiet I'ankft. Wo tried to rob Macondray's store, but it fell througi>. Kay
put up that job.

"Kuy also put up a jewelry establishment in a brick building on Sacra-
mento street. I went through the premises and examined them, but declined
doing it, on the ground that to effect the robbery it would be necessary to
murder pcrliaps four or five persons. Kay is an ignorant man ; he can scarcely
read or write ; his real name is Gibson.

" McCoruiick, :^tuart, and I went together to shoot a man by the name of
OTlalierty, who liad testified in court that McComiick had robbed him in
the colonies ; ho was going to shoot him for it. It was a moonlight night; I
said to AlcCormiek that it was too light, and that it would bo better to wait
until some other time ; so he gave it up. I did this to save the man. O'Flalieity
lived then in llryant place. Since the May fire Jack Aneutruo met »jio on
tho street; ho had frecjucntly been told that I was a vt^ry clever fellow;
AiTentnic lias been after nio many times, and ixiiuted out sevenil places tu
mo; I never would engage in anything with him; he took niedownandiiitni-
duced me to a man by the name of Earl. We drank together and then went
down to the custom -house; Arrentrue described it to nie; said there was
eight hundred dollars there; we looked at tlie drain. Then we went to the
other custom-house : he t(xik me inside ; we lcK)ked at the safe or vault tliat
was building; Earl proposed renting the houses nextdoor to the customdiouso
and opening an architect's oilicc in it, ami getting Watkins, and we could rob
till' building from his ollice. This was (iracticable ; we went to uee W'atkius.
Our plan, however, was not accomplished.

" Arrentrue and Earl proposed to mo to rob the El Dorado; tlicy urged
that the interest they had with tho authorities woidd cover our operations.
I had got sick of all such work, and made up my mind to leave oil", and took
no further notice of it. Arrentrue and liarl used frequently to conjc to my
phu'i- at Mr llogan's, juid dine with nie .nul play cards. I'^arl showed me a
pair of calipers tiiat he had, and told me tliey were very useful. Marl tuld
me what a very clei'er thing lie had since done with the calipora. He said
that he o|)eiied a door, went into a man's room, took the money from under
his head, went out, relock-Ml the dooi , and it was never discovered.

"1 wan at Marysville at the time of the Juno firo in San Fiuncisco, but
came down immediately. I lived with Mrs Hogan as her husband for four
months, during her lnmlwnd's aliseiicc. I knew her in the colouit's. 1 have
lieard it said that Mrs Hogan had lieen transported. I told Mrs Hogan about
Arrentrue and Earl's jiroposition ; sh*' imagined that I was engaged in rob-
bery. To do Mi-s Hogan justice, I must say she has done all in her power to
break up my associations imd to make me load a dill'erent life. I paid her
twenty dollars a week for my board; I also gave her many presents, about
twenty-five hundred dollars in all. Mrs Hogan knew all the men that I have
mentioned; they used to freipient her house. 1 was in no business. I derived
tho money thus: I won seven hundred doll, rs from Stuart at montc, ami i
hatl fourteen or .seventeen hundred dollars by me that 1 hail saved while I was
a butcher.

CONDENSED CATALOGUE OF CRIMES.

847

for four
<. llmv.'
ban uhout
tl ill vol'-

power to

paid Ik'<'
its, alMiut
tat I luivo

Idcrivcil
Ltc, anil I
liile I wiia

" Oeorgo Adams, McCorraick, Hughes, and McRenzie robbed Duzozo on
Sacramento street, below Kearny ; it was on the south side, and was early in
the evening in September or October ; it is said they got about fifteen thousand
doUai's. I was absent at the time.

"I won of Hotheringtou's companion six hundred dollars; hin name was
Dun; I wou at thimbles. Edwards and myself had been associated; Jones,
who had made his escape f i-om Marysville prison, wanted a share of it. As
Edwards, liong Charlie, ami I had won it together, I objected ; a man by tlio
name of (iallagher took up the matter for Jones, and went to my bedroom at
Mi-s Hogan's on tiptoe, with n drawn tlagger, to look for mo. Mrs II(jgaii told
him I was not there; there was considerable talk about his going around
trying to kill me. A day or two after Gallagher was found dead on the street by
Edwards' house; T think that Gallagher knew too much aljout Ivlwaids' Lusi-
ness, and for th.it reason Edwards poisonud Mr.i. I wu.s at the Mission, at Dr
Lambert's, at the timu Gallagher was lookii!;; lor me. Mrs Hoguti came to mo
with a letter from ,hulgu IJowie to take to Monterey; it contained certificates
of money that liriggs, Morgan, and Osmaii have iu the banks of San I'ran-
lisco; I deli\<'red up the documents to Parburt. The Monterey trial came on
tliat week; Stuart was there; I think he came «lown to shoot mo either for
my money or for jenlousj'. I knew all about the robbery at Monterey; I
loaned Osinan, IJriggs, and Morgan one tliousand tlollars. Ouick put up tlio
Monterey cnstom-housc for robbery; Uyan was one of the party, and tlie only
ono wlio received any benefit. I .as not interested in any of the robberies of
the jewelers; McCormick told mc of the roblieries. I believe, if you keep
([uiet and do not publish, that tlio jewelry will be recovered. Osmau bought it
tor six hundred dollars, and I do not Ih-'Huvo ho has sold it yet.

" I gave Mrs Ib/gan twenty-one ounces in gold for my l>oard at on time ;
I liiid loaned that amount to (>;<iiian, and he returned it. Tin? l;ist money [
got was twelve hundred dollars, which I gave to Mrs Hogan. This is the
\v;iy 1 got it: There was ii miner canio into Mrs Ifogan'a Ikmihc, on Sansimio
street; Kay, l''d\vauis, and I were there at the time. The miiur laid ilown
ii large bag of gold ; Edwards ami I took the mone}- out; I secreted !iiiollier
liiig. I'Mwardsaml rfeCormick took the miner olF; he had live or six hundred
ilrllars! more, which they eot away from him. 1 tv)ok tlio bag eontaining seven
hundred dollars ar ' • ividod it with ]\.ay and Edwards, giving them each
two hundred dolhj's, and keeping three hundred for my-self. Thu ether bag,
lontaining e.^lit lunnlied dollar:-, I did n)t ilivide, as they gave mo no shaio
of the money that had been taken from the miner. The whole amount I gave
to Mrs Ifogan; she knew how I got it; she knew vo were treating him to
cliiinipagno in order to ell'ect this purpose. ! told her what our plans were.
I also gave her about three hundreil dollars which I won at gambling with
Pan ; and the same amount paid mo by Ihiggs of the money 1 had loaned him
I uave Mrs llogan. 1 exchanged watches with her; mine was the must
valuable. I also gave her u diamond ring.

"T. B. Kay, when port-warden, took McConnick on board a man-of-war
in the harbor; the captain iwssesscd a very valuable gold lever watch with a
snake chain. While the olhcer was asleep McCormick htole the watch ;. ho
carried it with him when he went to London; I have no doubt it might ba

348

WHITTAKER AND McKENZIE.

recovered. Kay knew that McConnick had taken it; he afterward was
Bony aboat it, as the captain said he wouldn't have taken one thousand
dv^llars for it, as it was a present from his father. If the C!onunittee write to
Dan Forrester of London, or to the chief of police in Manchester, they will
send McConnick and the watch back again.

' ' Old Jack, aiiaa Morris Morgan, told me that Hughes did it with two flats —
robbed the Dupont-street jewelry store ; Hughes was apprehended for it and
acquitted. I don't know where he is ; he may have gone out of the country.
I was told that he took away all of that jewelry. One night it was stated
that some of the Vigilance Committee met him ; Old Jack knocked them down
and jumped a fence. In doing so he said he lost some of the jewelry ; amongat
it was a small watch, wliich was found in a hat next morning. Hetherington
and I were at Mrs Hogan'a at the same time. Hetherington told me that his
partner, Antone, was a passionate man ; he killed two men ; I saw him kill
one ; it was at the corner of the El Dorado, at night and in a crowd ; the
dagger stuck so fast that in drawing it out it pulled the man over. Two men
were arrested, but nothing was made of it; Antone was never suspected.

"Stuart and George Smith told me that they shot a man on the Stockton
road ; the man had considerable money. Ho ran toward the house after he
was shot, and died nearly as soon as he had entered.

"I never knew of any one setting a place on fire in San Francisco except
Billy Sweetclieese, whose real name is Shears. I heard that he set the United
States on firo on the Pla^a at the time it was vacant. This is merely rumor.
After robbing the miner alluded to, at Mrs Hogan's, we met McCarty, the
policeman who was always ready to lielp us. I j^ave McCarty three ounces,
one each for Edwards, Kay, and myself. I told McCarty that McConnick had
got sonic five hundred dollars, and he must get some out of him too. Brown,
in the police, was the man who did the dirty work for policemen McCarty and
Mclntyre.

"Billy Hughes, John Edwards, and Morris Morgan are runaway con-
^■ict^, Thoy came from Van Dieman Land. There is no comparison be-
tween the convicts from Sydney and Van Dieman Land. The latter are so
bad they would not allow them to coem into Sydney.

" I got Windred away when he was under arrest with Burdue. I went
to the new jail with Windred 'a wife and Mrs Hoguu; I sent the key in;
^^)m Byrnes', the man you sent to Sydney, came to my house and said that
Windred was out; I got up and went down to the wharf at Pacific streot ;
( tcorge Adams and Windred were there ; I told Adams to go away by himself.
1 tool; Windred to a stable, got horses, and took him to l)r Lambert's, where
he stayed for two weeks ; I paid his board. Dr Lambert is a man from thi;
i;olonies. At the end of that time I engaged passage for Wimlreil, and up-
pointed a night to put him on board. 1 told Kitchen to stand by with bin
boat, that I had a miui to put on board. I gave Windred my old cap, ami
bought a new one for myself; I put him down a passage-way at Clark Point.
Mrs Hogan and Mrs Windred were in waiting; Mrs Windred in men's
I'lotliea; in that disguise I had taken her frequently to see her husband.
Both women bade Windred good-by, and I put him on board Kitchen's boat,
who took him to the ship. The vessel in which Windred was placetl re

CHARMING ACQUAINTANCES.

340

d waa

>TUHUld

rite to
eywill

, flats—
: it and
ountry.
I stated
tndown
imongat
jringtoa
that his
him kill
iwd; the
rwo men
cted.
Stockton
5 after lie

mained in {x>rt a fortnight, and I feared he would be apprehended again.
Windred sent for his wife to go with him, and she went on board, and sailed
with him the morning after the May fire.

" Kitchen is a rough, boatman-looking fellow, dirty, very dirty ; he kept
a boarding-house near Clark Point; he is a stout man, about thirty, dark
hair, and heavy whiskers ; he is a convict from Van Dieman Land. Kitchen
has a specimen, of the value of one hundred and forty dollars, that Stuart
took off the body of Moore, whom he murdered at Auburn.

" Purcell, a police-officer, used to take money ; he took money of Hughes ;
he would take money from any one. At the primary election for Malachi
Fallon I was solicited by Sweeney, McCarty, and Mclntyre, to aid in the
election ; accordingly I did so, and got some twelve votes, all from men who
were convicts and foreigners."

CO except
he United
sly rumor,
^arty, the
>e ounces,
rmick had
Brown,
[Carty and

[away con-

larison be-

ter are so

I went
|u key in;

said that
Itic stroct ;
hy himself,
j-t's, Avht^ri!
from the
|l, and ap-
with liiH
cap, lU"'
lark Point,
in mcn'^
husband,
lien's boat,
[placed vc

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE CIRCUMVENTORS CIRCUMVENTED.

When in doubt, win the triuk.

Hoyle.

At length the law, long paralyzed and puny, awoke
with a spasiii of" energy. Election was approaching.
To be or not to be, wns the question. The existence
of a popular organization for the suppression of crime
was a standing reproacli upon the honesty and effi-
ciency of the authorities. And even in the minds of
city and state othr'ials who secretly sympathized with
the Vigilance Committee it seemed necessary to up-
hold the dignity and sacredness of law, lest this new
phase of liberty sliould degenerate into licentiousness.

Already given is the proclamation to the people of
the state by Governor McDougal, dated July 21,
1851, calling on them to discountenance illegal tribu-
nals and sustain the courts. At three o'clock on the
morning of the 20th of August Governor McDougal
and Mayor Brenham rapped at the door of Sheriff
Hays and presented him a writ, issued by Judge
Morton of the Superior Court, based on an affidavit
made bv the governor that two men, Whittaker and
-VlcKenzie, were detained without authority of law.
The writ c»jmmanded the sheriff to take the; bodies of
the two men and bring them into court, to be dealt witli
according to law. The sheriff', with a posse of depu
ties, repaired immediately to the Committee rooms,
which they entered without resistance, and while
some guarded the door others advanced and called on

(3f0)

THE LAW'S GRAND ACHIEVEMENT.

i efti-
ids of
I with
o up-
new
,sness.
tie of
r 21,
tribu-
n th<>
>ougal
heriff
udgk'
davit
r and
law.
ies of
It with
depu
ooms.
whih'
ed on

the prisoners to accompany them, which they gladly
did, and were soon comfortably lodged in jail. One of
the guard attempted to push back the officers; two
others, suspecting treachery, let themselves down from
the window and sounded the alarm on the bells of the
California and Monumental engine companies. The
action of those in charge of the room was bitterly
denounced : and such were the singular circumstances
attending the rescue as to raise serious question in the
minds of many if there were not collusion between
the officers of the law and the officers of the Counnit-
tce. Daybreak found the streets alive with excited
people pouring toward the Committee rooms, where a
meeting was m session and the events of the night
were beinj? discussed. Some were in favor of tsrisiii},'
and making an immediate attack on the prison ; others
held that in the justice of their cause tlicy couli
trust that the unholy sympathy thrown b}' the law
over two notorious law-breakers could do the reform-
ers no permanent injury, and they shoukl wait. Tlius
in every trying event good counsel prevailed; passion.,
though aggravated by the chattering of apes, must"
l)e laid aside, foi' this was not an association for the
j)romotion nf lawlessni'ss, and the law, though not
iespectLibie,must in some measure be rospected. Tiiere-
fore it was concluded to let the matter rest for the
moment, to permit the authorities to indulge tlieir
innocent gambols over their little victory, hoping tliem
thereby good. In the eyes of (he sober members of the
( onnnittee the affair was but a little stratagem, matle
successful by the hour, and the laxity of tlie guard;
and the very fact of the law being obliged to emiiloy
darkness and circumvention in the execution of its
mandates was the surest sign of its weakness. Even
now the authorities seemed half fi'ighteued at their
boldness, and almost panic-stricken at the peril of
their situation. How should they defend the law's
majesty against the bloody-mindetl citizen? Turn
the guns of the Vincoina on the \icinity of Battery

THE CIRCUMVENTORS CIRCUMVENTED.

Tit).

and California streets. Parley. Bring in ordnance
from the Presi^ili^ Let the military be held in readi-
ness to answer at a moment's notice. Proclaim an
end of the reign of terror; an inaugn ration of the
reign of law. Meanwhile the members of the Com-
mittee went about their business, apparently uncon-
cerned in all this splutter and bombast of the officials,
determined that no provocation, however severe,
should tempt them to the performance of any action
which should brinr^ reproach upon them as law-abiding
citizens, or upon their organization, m.adc for the pur-
))ose of strengthening law and good government; and
ill this moderation was their greatest victory.

That same day appeared a second proclamation by
the governor, calling upon all good citizens to unite
for the purpose of sustaining public law and tran-
quillity, to aid the public officers in the discharge of
their chity, and to discountenance any attempt made
to substitute the dos})otic control of a self-constituted
association in place of regularly organized govern-
nieiit; warning those disposed to resist legal authority
that civil war in all its horrors would be tlie inevitable
consequence. The force of this proclamation, how-
ever, was materially weakened by a card jiublished at
the same time bv the Vioilance Committee, which read
as follows:

" Wi', the undersigned, do hereby aver that the present goveraor, Mc-
Dougal, asked to be introduced to the executive committee of the Committee
of Vij;ilniu'o, whicli was allowed, and an hour fixed. The governor, upon
being introduced, stated that he approved the acts of the Committee, and that
mucli good had taken jdace. He hoped that they would go on, and endeavor
to act ill concert with tlie authorities ; and incase any judge should be guilty
cf maludmiuistntion, to hang him, ajul he would appoint others.

"g. e. schexck,
"George ,1. Oakes,
"Isaac Bi,kxome Jr.,
"S. Patoan."

The enemies of the reformers were triumphant,
but their victory was achieved by the humiliation of
the country's best friends. Very early one Robinson,

I 1 -ai'K '

THE u-AV IT WAS DONE,
of the AtlelnJii" Th 4- **'

i"fla„.,„„t,„ P 'IS'^^l^'^ a box, .,„, i,. „„

■ncdiate attack on the MTh '*, "'■»>•''' "» '■"-
»e,«mted for rcfresl.n o, Is to tV"'"^ "f" -■»"""•«'

;n..km.. saloon., an.l „b„u „it '"m''" ''"'^■'" '•""'
thousand„,„, ,^j, °»"t .1110 odoek »o«,e two

over, was but a n.ob- t« as, ',, '""'"■'• T''i». I'oM-.
»"'-e Con„„ittee ,li,l 'its o I aT ''''"" ""-' Viwil-

t"-tened to be^t'^LJttbS "•""' "' "^ '^"''

^V"'"l'""oe of fa,, '^ J" ; "! 7", -"»"■ S. The,eU|,on
<ill 4 o'elocli ,.. ,,. • ^"'' '"^'-t"'S- then adjourned

--4^^ctf';^r::i 3'"'^*^' '""""''^ -^iv le

I';-'';' to fear do«n f " S ':;"'""»*'"■.. So.ne |,ro-

(liom sharply. -^"You wo.dd , , , rf ' "'""* "■■''"1^"'

:; ""t'"S sreater fol ■ sajT' '™'^' ■™»'' l''Jlv bv

•'I'oiv »-as but one se,,ti „e,,t /,' ^* 'r'- -'^'^vert biles;

:'^«''.tive 'loti^rmi^ro;,'],""':'"'';'- <'■'■: «oizure that the
'" ','"">''"" «ith th ., colt' .^i- '" '^"l"""- Indeed,
'""!yi'»tand ho« the 'nl „"' '"''f /I'O -'<uf<l nof

>:'■■ f a hundred n.endJrs I'^T'"" '''"*^'"' tl'^.v
'"gilt, tenfoM nior,. fl ,"' *'"^ pi-omise-s that

^'^fU.d the she r ;! ,™""r'' *" ''-e .suocessf h'
■■"'d 'i« was sleepn'^'^,-" '"""'» »■•••■■- "» g»ar,i,

7",'- Aburlyblack^ndtL n, ed'sf"' /'" "*"'""'g

;'t tile door, and when Ha s .? f^ '"■ "'""•' ^''"■■"■'T

they w,.re ad,„itf^.j '. "^.^ ;»"'l Caperton kuScke,!

r«>. T.,... ,.„,, ,, .];| "itliout lesistanee sufficient t,j,

354

THE CIRCUMVENTORS CIRCUMVENTED.

waken him. !Mr Ryckmau was not present, but Pay-
ran, placing the utmost confidence in the guard, was
asleep in the executive room.

At the request of the Committee, John McDougal.
governor, appeared before them at their rooms and
stated that in tlie hotel at Benicia the day previous,
which was the lUtli, it was reported that the Vigi-
lance Connuittee wei-e to meet during the night to
sentence Whittaker and McKenzie, and he doter-
niincd to coinQ down and prevent an execution, it'
possible. On arriving at the Union Hotel about
noon he v.^as told by two men who were, or professed
to be, members of the Vigilance Connnittce, that the
prisoners would be executed the following day.

On receiving tliis information lie proceeded immc-
diatelv to Mavor Bronliani, and asked his assistanci;
in rescuing the prisoners. I^renhinn acquiesced, and
the two oiiicials called upon the shcritt*. The next
tiling necessary was a writ o\' habeas corpii.s, which,
alter mniw search for a judge, was linally obtained
from Myron Xorton. 'I'lie party then [trocecded to
the rooms of the A'i<'ilanee Connnittee antl knocked
at the door, whieh was o[)ened. Caperton, deputy
shei'ifl', entered first, then Hays, the sheriif. The
dooi- closed. McDougal remaining at the liead of
tlie stairs, and lirenham bel(»w, outside the building.
In a few minutes the slierilf and his deputy returneil
with the [irisoners, without having encountered any
resistance. On beins>' asked who had s»iven him the
information at the Union Hoti^l, liedediinfd to answer.

Mavor Brenham eonlirmed before the ("onunittee
the statement of the governor, adchng that prior to
the conference at the sherift"s oilice it was their in-
tention to have aj)[)eared at the Committee rooms in
full force, with a writ o{' /labcas corpus, the following
niorning at eight o'clock. The mayor was perfectly
certain that no member of the Vigilance Committee,
or any persons other tlian those vho came, had cog-
nizance of their intention ; nor was there any collusion.

mVESTIOATION BY THE COMMITTEE.

355

uiue-

, and

next
'hicli,
,aiuc(l
cd to
ockcd

puty

Iding.
rmd
I any
u tlu'

litto*-'
or to
ir in-
nis in

win 'J,'

Ifectly

^ittec.

cog

Lision.

directly or indirectly, between them and any members
of the Vigilance Committee.

Sheriff Hays stated that he was in bed when the
governor and mayor called. He at first thought that
duty did not demand of him interference, and asked his
visitors if they knew the men were to be executed
the next day. They were sure of it. He then pro-
ceeded to serve the writ, meeting with no resistance
on entorinLT the room and but little on leavinir it.

J. L. Van Bokkelen, chief of the vigilant police,
l)eing sworn before the executive committee, said that
|)ursuant to the instructions of the Committee he had
[>roceedod to. select a place for the execution of the
prisoners, and had reported to the Committee, wlio
instructed him to make the necessary detail of rjuards
and other preparations. In the exercise of this duty
it was necessary for him to leave the room twice.
He had given McKenzie permission to change his
linen and to shave; he had ordered the good spring
handcuffs wliieli ornamented his wrists to be taken off
and }K>orer ones substituted, so that the goofl pair
niiixlit not be lost to the Conunittee when the body
should be taken by the coroner. Durin<>: tlie consuni-
nuition of these arrangements the ca{)turt.' was made.

P. P. Hull, on reporting for duty that night, was
told to arm, which he did, and was then told to hold
himself in readiness for orders which he never received.
While in the refreshment room he heard a scufflinjj
and call for the police. He I'an out and found a crowd
about the door, and heard the sheriff say: "We are
tot) strong for you; we have a posse outside." Tjctting
himself down by a rope, he came upon the capturi'd
prisoners, and cocked his pistol, but refrained from
tiring.

Some fifteen or twenty others were examined bcfon^
the Committee, and among them Steele, the door-
keeper. This man testified that when the sheriff
applied for admittance he was crowded in by those
behind him, and that when the prisoners were brought

THB CIRCUMVENTOIIS ClRCUMyKXTED.

t<» liis door on their way out, while soinu plucocl their
hack aj^ainst it to prevent exit, those outside forced
it open, and in the nielue tliat ibll'^wed the yherifF and
Ills ibllowers c.sca[)ed with the prisoners. The coup ife
iiuiin was so sudden tliat the guard l)ecanie confused
and hardly knew what he <lid.

This evidence was <jiven before a sub-connnittee
a]>pointed by the executive comniittce, and tiicir rc-
l)urt was in the following words:

"The cominittoe respix'tfiilly Hubinit tlic ciitiru (evidence taken, and leave
the Vigil.ince (Joininitteo to juil^o for theinHelves of any eulpability on the
part of those inti'ii^teil with the cliiirge of tlie jiri.soiiers hist niylit and tliis
nioniing. Your eunimittee, while they feel it tlieir duty to exonerate all from
the least imputation of lirihery or eonnivuncc! at tiie escape of the i)risoner8,
feel it their duty to say that there was a great want of their usual care and of
that caution whicii t]»e importjiuce of the duty assigued them rotpiired ; and
that they deem the eiiief of police especially guilty of gross neglect, and
wanting in thiit energy and self-eontiol wliieli if properly exercised would
have prevented the escape of the prisoners, and tiierelij' wctuld have saved the
Vigilance Coniniittec from the disgrace of neglect whieli nnist now rest upon
it. And your committee cannot conclude without expressing their condem-
nation of the course talien by tliose members of the Vigilance Committee
wiio were so estranged from their duty as to inform tlie governor of the in-
tended action (if the (lonnnittee, which lendereil it imperative upon him to
adopt the course \w did, and which has so cfTectually checked the important
action of the Vigilance Committee. "

At the adjourned meeting the committee reported
according t<» tlie facts obtained. The cliief of i)olice
was instructed to keep a o-uard of twentv men over
Whittaker and McKeuzie, then in custody of the
sheriff, lest either by force or connivance should escape.
It was resolved that the sentence of death pronounced
u|>ou tlieni should still remain in force.

On account of the strong feeling against him,
whether guilty of actual connivance at the escape of
tlie prisoners or not. Van T3okkelen resigned his posi-
tion as chief of police, and Oscar Smith was elected
in his stead. In this ballot, whicli occurred at a gen-
eral meeting on the 2Gth of August, James King of
Wm. received two votes, and F. Argenti and J. W.
Cartwright each one vote.

VARIKI) COl'XSKL.

S57

Tlio uttoraucus of thr press did not fairly reprosoiit
the sentiment of the more cahn and thoughtful element
of the Committee. It breathed of the mob spii'it,
which tended to retard rather than to accelerate tlio
movements of the Committee, and to impair i\u)
quality of their work. Doubtless it expressed the
feelings of a majority of the general conunitt«.'e, but
not of those who were trusteil and obeyed as the safe
and worthy leadeis of the movement. Tlie authori-
tics were simply doing theii- duty, and the Connnittee
could not make up their minds, at this juncture, to
shoot them down while in the discharge of it. The
California Cvurier ()( the 2 1st of August writes:

)rted
liolice
I over
the
Lape.
Inced

him,

ho of

[posi-

pcted

\if ot

" Aa sofin as this wicked attempt to involve this comiminity in exciteniont
and perhaps )»looilsln'il. for no cause wiiatever. Iind succecilcd, tlie IhjII of the
Vigilance Committet^ was tolled, and the niemlKira left their sleeping-ehani-
bers for tlie (Committee rooms. The excitement was tremendous. Tlierc are
Judases in the Committee's camp. .Some one has betrayed them. Let Iho
Committee l(«»k to this. We sliall not advise them what to do, for they aro
lietter informed, and will nodoidit all act witli lirnmess and discretion. Tiio
authorities, however, who were engaged in tiiis nnneces.sary attempt to pro-
duce a eollisiuu between the people and tlie authorities, have dug for them-
selves a grave so deep that tlie hand of re.sinrcetion cannot reacii tiieni.

"In the morning at an early hour an immense as.semblage of the people
g.'ithered around the jail, under the expectatitm that a forcible attempt would
have lieen made to break open the jail and sci/o the prisoiK-rs. Had tiny
attempted it and been resisted by the mighty men in luickram wiio were
pacing the roof of the jail, the people would have blown them into fragments
skydiigh, and made their Uesh and bones food for coyotes ami. crows upon the
surrounding hills."

The comments of tlie /Icm/d the sam<' day, though
more pertinent, are nevertheless not in exact accord
with the minds of the mysterious few which governed
all, and round which revolved the passion-seething
multitude:

"Much as we have admired the conduct of the Committee on other occa-
.sions, we think their course yesterday, under the severe provocation they ri--
ceived, was more praiseworthy than any victory they have yet achieved.
They regarded the aflfair aa a very stupid piece of chicanery by which they
had been overreached in the discharge of their iluty, but they preservt^d a
perfectly calm demeanor, certain that sooner or later justice would ttki' its

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

I.I

•^° i« III 2.2
Is l" III 2.0

1.8

1.25 1.4

1.6

•< 6" —

►

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

^■^A ^Sf>-

23 WEST MAIN STRCX?

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 873-4503

<:^

3o8

THE CIRCUMVENTORS CIRCUMVENTED.

course. While the authorities were hurrying up and down in perfect amaze-
ment at their own desperate valor, issuing orders for muskets, cartridges, and
cannon, the members of the Committee were quietly pursuing their usual avo-
cations, wholly nnmoved except to laughter at these warlike demonstrations.
■' And the pygmiet swarmed in the streets, and cha+tered, and chuckled,
and lielil conferences at the street comers about the wonderful victory they
had achieved over tlie Vigilance Committee and the cause of justice, unmind-
ful, these pygmies, that the same popular will Avhich lias broken up and scat-
tered to the winds that criminal organization on which corrupt olficials
fattened, could sweep them and all their macliinery of office, courts, and
law into the bay at a single efl'ort. As for the vapid and meaningless docu-
ment called a proclamation, which was posted up about the city,, it is wholly
unworthy of notice. It has no point whatever."

And thus, the day following:

"These pets of the law, if we understand rightly, are in custody witiiout
any legal commitment, and while so detained are an illegal expense to the
county. If they are turned loose again on society a stupcmdous crime Mill
be committed against the jjeace and lives of our citizens. The full mea.sure
of their guilt is perhaps unknown ; it is natural to suppose that men under
such circumstances will not confess the perpetration of very grave crimes ;
but their own admissions show that their hands are raised instinctively and
by long habit against tiieir fellows; and that to permit them to go again at
large wouhl be t(j be accessai'y to murder. A lawyer can nevertheless easily
convince a court that against these men there is no proof suliicient to convict
them, and the question arises, Wliat will the court order ? It caiuiot have them
detained, as thei' is no testimony against them. They will of course deny
their guilt and contradict their adr.iissions. These admissions will go foi'
naught, and the grand jury cannot even lind a bill against these men. Sec,
then, the position the law has brought itself into in regard to them. It i.s to
be presumed that none will deny their criminality; about that there can be
but one opinion ; and yet the law virtually tleelares sucJi men must not be
punished. Law cannot punish them, and law will not pennit anybody else
to punish tiieni. The men who now presume, after permitting two criminals
to be executed without venturing to oppose the Connnittee, to thwart them
in their cflforts to restore society to its just equilibrium, to restore energy to
the palsied arm of justice, to break up the criminal organization which has
pervaded this whole country for more than two years, an organization, too,
which has dealt in murder and rapine to an extent which has appalled the
liearts of our citizens, an organization wliich has perpetrated lifty-two mur-
ders in the precincts of this city within the hist eighteen months, we say
tiiose who now oppose the Committee in their ellbrts to break up this organi-
zation seem to forget that they themselves exist in their official capacity but
by sulTerance, and that the labor of crushing them would be very light indeed. "

The night before they were to have met their fate
permission was given the two prisoners to shave and

THE LAW'S EXCUSE.

359

dress in their best clothes. They were to have been
executed from the yard-arm of a vessel, in full view
of Telegraph Hill, round the base of which so many
scoundrels congregated. It may be interesting to
some to know the intended proceedings on board the
ship.

The chief of police was to detail a guard of true
men, well armed, to proceed to the vessel and make
preparations for the reception of the prisoners. A
clergyman should be allowed on board with the
prisoners. The bell should bo tolled on shore. When
all was ready the water signal should be hoisted and
a gun fired. Then the executive sliould appear ui)on
the shore, and upon the waving of a handkerchief the
souls of the condemned should bo launched upon the
eternal sea, and tlicir bodies should hang for the space
of one hour thereafter. Btit the Committee had for-
gotten that at the hoin^ named the tide would be low.
Furthermore, the risk of failure would have been
n^reater in conductinjx an execution on board a vessel
than on shore; hence that plan would probably have
been abandoned.

Four days passed quietly while Whittaker and
]\IcKenzie lay undisturbed in jail. Yet no one who
thought tipon the matter supposed that the Vigilance
Committee would allow the affair to rest there. The
authorities well knew, or might have known, when
they seized the men that they could not hold them.
Xeither did they care to hold them, or to prevent the
Committee from exercising their sovereign purpose.
The men deserved to hang. Xo one qtiestioned it.
The Committee, through their ability and energy, had
broken up the organization. Let them complete
their work; it was better so. Certain base or blun-
dering members, by informing of the intended execu-
tion, had obliged the authorities, contrary to their
inclination, to make the seizure. It now onlv re-
mained to the Committee to repair the breach caused
by their indiscretion and neglect. The momentary

" i

300

THE CIRCUMVEXTORS CIRCU.Ars'ENTED.

victory of the authorities had strengthened the Com-
mittee rather than weakened it.

Their ranks were swelled by large additions of the
most respectable clement of society. Money was
freely subscribed for the support of the organization,
and fresh impetus given to its vitality. People
w^erc satisfied that if the two men Whittaker and
McKenzie wore tried by the courts they w ould be
acquitted and turned loose upon society. Even in
face of tlie ovcrwhelmino^ evidence ao^ainst them it
would be difficult for a grand iin^v Icij^allv to find a
true bill, or for a court legally to punish them. Should
law, then, prevent just punishment which it could not
itself inflict? The Committee were stimulated by
obvious considerations, and showed their decision in
the folio Ainsr order:

"Capt. Cartwiiioiit:

"You arc hereby authorized to detail a guard, such as you think proper,
and arrest two prisoners, to wit: Sam Whittaker and R. McKenzie, and
bring them into custody of the Committee of Vigilance.

"Done by order of Executive Committee, August 22, a.u. 1851.

"James B. Huie, Chairman.
"Attest: S. PAYitiVN, Secretari/."

Sunday was the time fixed upon for the recapture.
It was ascertained that there w^ould bo service on that
day, and it was customary on such occasions to bring
all the prisoners from their cells into the main hall to
hear preaching. At that time the doors would be un-
barred; there would be no locks to pick, no cells to
break open.

On Saturday thirty of the Committee met in an
old iron buildinix standing on the corner of California

-I- •

and LeidesdoT'ff street, and agreed among themselves
to reoovor the prisoners or perish in the attempt. The
first thing was to ascertain the condition of the jail,
by whom it was guarded, and what arms were in the
possession of its defenders. As it would not do to
visit the jail in a body, lots were drawn to determine

VIGILANCE SPIES IX THE JAIL.

3G1

in an
Ifornia
Iselves
The
le jail,
lin the
Ido to

irmine

who should act the spy, enter the jail, and bring back
a report. The lot fell upon Bluxome, who immedi-
ately set out on his mission. In front of the building
he found the sheriff himself, saddling a mule.

"Colonel Hays," began Bluxome, "you haveBurduc
yet a prisoner. His was a very hard case. Though I
have never met him I have had much to do in his
case, and I must confess to a curiosity concerning his
strange resemblance to Stuart. I would like to see
him."

"Certainly; go in," said Hays, giving at the same
time the order to admit him.

Bluxome entered and found Burdue sitting on a
stone step. Entering into conversation witli him, he
carefully marked in his mind the place and its con-
tents, and then walked carelessly about the prison.
The only arms he could discover was a rack of muskets
standing in the middle of the main hall. These might
be dangerous, and they might not; but how ascertain
if they were loaded without exciting suspicion? Taking
a musket from the rack and turning to the officer in
attendance, whom he well knew, he exclaimed in a
half playful manner:

"Lambert, you are an old infantry soldier; so am I.
Put mc through the drill."

"What drill?" asked Lambert.

" Loading and firing."

"All right, sir," replied the officer, complying with
the request. Presently Bluxome complained :

" This gun is not well balanced," and putting it
back he took from the rack another. And so on divers
pretences he examined one after another, and ascer-
tained that none of them were loaded. That was all
be wished to know, and he returned to report.

Ryckman determined to make a survey on his own
account. Going up to the jail, he found ready ad-
mittance. The triumphant authorities were most
affable. The vigilance organization was a fine append-
age to a police office. "We don't want any trouble

f-'

S6'2

THE CIRCUMVENTORS CIRCUMVENTED.

with you," said the smiHng jailer as he admitted him.

"There are many who entertain the same senti-
ment," was the caustic reply.

Ryckman examined the muskets, which were flint-
locks, and saw that they were not loaded. He was
less diplomatic in his visit than Bluxome had been.
He was absolutely fearless, and went more directly for
his object than some who were, indeed, no more cir-
cumspect than he. The jailer spoke truly. No one
coveted trouble with Mr Ryckman.

The visitor asked to be shown the captured prison-
ers. Whittaker was in his cell, and on seeing who it
was he came to the grating and said :

" I hope you are not sorry to see me here, Mr Ryck-

man

?»

"Sir," was the reply, "you were arrested througli
the agency of the people; you were tried and convicted
by the people ; you escaped, but you will as surely be
executed by the people as you now live. Entertain no
hope otherwise. Be ready. No power on earth shall
save you."

This utterance can hardly be commended as discreet.
Ryckman then returned to the Committee rooms and
busied himself in preparing for the intended under-
taking for Sunday.

At the rendezvous on Sunday morning only one
out of the thirty was absent. The twenty- nine were
divided into three parties, one of thirteen and the
others of eight, and each placed under a captain.
G. W. White commanded the first, and Mr Calhoun
and Oscar Smith tlie other two. The movement was
under the immediate orders of J. W. Cartwright.

Over a portion of the prison, at the time, there was
no roof, and from a certain point on Telegraph Hill
could plainly be seen all that occurred in the main
room. One Higgins was stationed at this point with
instructions to open wide his arms the moment service
was over.

Meanwhile one party had taken its stand at the

RECAPTURE AND EXECUTION.

368

front door of the prison, and of the others, one at the
back door, and one in the area between the outer wall
and main building, where they could see Higgins.
The signal being given, every man made ready.
Immediately the front door was opened, and as the
worshippers from without were making their exit, the
party there stationed crowded in. At this juncture
a crash was heard at the back door, which fell with
loud noise beneath the blows of a sledge-hammei'. In
another moment two divisions were together, while
the third rushed to the front and acted as guard. The
criminals, who under guard had been attending ser\ ice,
instinctively scattered to their cells like rats before
their feline enemy. The regular jail guard were at
their station on the top of the building, and during
the seizure they were covered by a large pistol in the
hand of James B. Huie, one of the twenty-nine.
Wliittaker was taken by Bluxome just as he entei-ed
his cell. This was about a quarter jjast two. At the
same instant, by different parties, McKenzie and the
officers were seized. There was some scuffling be-
tween the officers and the vigilants, and a few harm-
less shots were fired. Whittaker and McKenzie
struggled hard, but were quickly overcome. The
two criminals were bound, and hurried to a carriage
in waiting. The other inmates of the prison stood
trembling with fear, without offering the least resist-
ance, not knowing when their own turn might come.
No sooner were the two prisoners thrust into the
carriafje which stood in readiness round the corner
than the driver plied his whip, and the horses dash(;(l
off at the top of their speed, up Broadway to Stockton
street, thence to Washington and through Dupont,
Sacramento, Montgomery, and California streets, to
the Committee rooms on Battery street. Not a
moment was lost. Over the doors of the second story
of the building projected two beams, fastened to which
Avere blocks roved with ropes noosed at one end.
With their coats removed and arms pinioned to their

1 ■

1^ II

364

THE CIRCUMVENTORS CIRCUMVENTED.

sides, tho ropos were adjusted round their necks. The
next instant the two prisoners Avere simultaneously
jerked from tlieir feet and hoisted in air until their
heads touched the beams above; then they were
lowered and ao^ain hoisted until life was extinct.

Nothing of the plan was known to any except the
executive conmiittee and those actually engaged in
it. Even the preliminary arrangements, as we have
seen, were made outside of the Committee rooms.
Less than three quarters of an hour was occupied
from the time of the attack upon the jail till the un-
fortunate men were swinjjinff from the beams of the
vigilance Committee building. Following is the re-
turn of order of arrest.

' ' ExECTTivK Committee of Vigilance Committee, \
"8ax Fhancisco, August 24, 1851. /

"Agreeable to your orders above, I detailed thirty (30) men, who pro-
ceeded in three divisions, under the respective orders of Col. G. W. White,
C'fipt. Calhoun, and Mr Oscar Smitli, and in the sliort space of five minutes
from the first charge the prisoners above named were on their way to your

head-quarters. "Respectfully,

"J. W. Cartwright.'

While the vehicle containing the prisoners and their
guard was dashing through the streets the ^lonu-
mental bell struck the well known signal, but before
many members in answer to its summons could reach
the Ccjinmittee rooms the deed was done. The execu-
tive committee were becoming proHcient in the busi-
ness; all had been preconcerted, all was carried out
without faltering and without confusion. The execu-
tion over, the people were addressed by two members,
and the action of the Committee received their un-
qualified approval. At sunset the bodies were delivered
to the coroner, m ho held an inquest at the house of
the California Engine Company.

The extraordinary incidents of the day, and of the
occasion, were never paralleled in any country. Glance
once more at them: A law-loving but crime-ridden
people rise and do what the law fails to accomplish.

SOME INCIDENTS.

865

namely, seize and strangle villainy, and break up a
nest of crime. Their work not quite finished, inept
law, following its jealous necessity, snatches two of
their caught criminals, in order to punish them in
its own way. The people recover and execute them.
Where else in liistory shall we find this play of
battledoor and shuttlecock between law, justice, and
the people?

From their quiet devotions under the auspices of
law to that eternity of which they prayed, these nmr-
derers found their swift and natural way. There were
many incidents worthy of mention in this connection,
but I can give place to but two or three.

When the i)risoners were bound, with their hands
behind and the ropes round their necks, and all was
ready for the execution, Whittaker said:

" 1 want to see Mr Ryckman."

" What is it, Whittaker?" said Ryckman, stepping
up to him.

*' You have never deceived me, and I will tell you
something. You are a doomed man. You will be
iissassinated in less than ninety days. Reckless and
determined men have sworn it."

" I am not afraid of them," said Ryckman. " All
the desperadoes this side of purgatory can never in-
timidate me in the discharge of my duty."

While the execution was taking place the mayor,
Brenham, was noticed sitting quietly on a pile of
lumber on the opposite side of the stro'^,t from the
( 'onunittce rooms, regarding the proceedings appar-
ently as an idle spectator.

After the men had been hang-iniTf about fifteen min-
utes Gallagher presented himself, blustering for the
bodies.

" What do you want?" asked Ryckman, stepping
forward.

" I am coroner of the city of San Francisco, and I
want these men !"

" You can't have them."

I
I

366 THE CmCUMVENTORS CIRCUMVENTED.

" If you don't give them to me I will cut them
down!"

" Raise your hand to touch those bodies and you
are a dead man. Come, be quiet and take a drink —
that or the contents of this pistol, as you like."

The Irishman calmed himself and * smiled. '

"When can I have them?" he asked, now wholly
resigned.

" When the sun goes down," said Ryckman.

The day after the execution Hays, the sheriff,
meeting Ryckman, said:

" I am mortified to death. All my hopes of reelec-
tion are destroyed."

" Colonel, don't be foolish," Ryckman replied.
" Seek the election. You have acquitted yourself
fully. Failure sometimes is more successful than
.success."

:«;'

CHAPTER XXIV.

MINOR RASCALITIES.

They demon gladly to the Imdder end.

Chaucer,

The revelations of Stuart gave many cause for
uneasiries.s. In the published confession some of the
names given by him were omitted and blanks inserted,
and many an undetected rascal in reading that report
saw in fancy the letters of his own name flaming
blood-ied in blank spaces. Knowing, moreover, that
for every blank the Committee had the true and fit-
ting appellation, some who before regarded themselves
as fixed and settled members of the connnonv ealth
suddenly ariived at the conclusion that their healtii
required a change of air.

More than any other one person T. Belcher Kay
sat uneasily as he read that confession. He is said to
have been the instigator of the great fire of the 22d
of June. His assistants in that aftair were Jii^imy-
from-Town, Dutchy Betts, Adams, and Wiiittaker.
Kay promised to have the plunder properly divided;
they secured some eight thousand dollars in all, in-
cluding three cases of valuables sent to a Sacramento
Jew, who did business on the corner of J and Second
streets. Kay was disgusted with the present tui-n of
affairs. Things were coming to a pretty pass when, in
addition to the trouble caused him by the people, every
other man of them had turned thief-hunter; when a
comrade would not suffer himself to be hanged in
quiet, but must first tell all he knew and jeopardize
the lives of his former companions. Whoever heard

(3C7)

808

MINOR RASCALITIES.

tti

of such a state of thin^s^ wlieii onC' could not fire a
few huildinyrs without ('au«iii<r sudi a commotion! It
was not fair. Why could not morchauts and mechan-
ics mind their own business? What did they know
about law? Incendiarism, robbery, and murder were
matters resting' entirely between gentlemen of the
])r()fession and the courts, between which classes lay
the net-work of the law, both manipulating it as best
they might according to their respective interests.
Now, for the men of merchandise to interfere and
raise such a hubbub was infamous. The country was
becoming unfit for a respectable scoundrel to live in.
Everything seemed turning against him. The people
were patrolling and associates confessing. There were
yet the courts, however. After all, the law had treated
him well enough, ami legal technicalities were about
the safest covert for hunted rascality; tiiere money
was money. He was friendless now; there his stolen
gold dust would bu}^ him a friend into whose safe ear
he could pour his secrets, tell all his guilt, and secure
him able and acti\e sympathy; for so kind law pro-
vided. Money would likewise buy him witnesses who
would swear to anything his legal accomplice might
indicate. Money made wan the cold cell, soft the
hard couch, drove hunger a. xl thirst to hide them-
selves; it opened prison doors, and made even judges
benignant. Law was the only safe refuge for the rascal ;
to the law he would go, and that while he was able.

At the time of Stuart's arrest Mr Belcher Kay
was in San Francisco, but urgent calls of conscience
took him to Sacramento. The outlook there was not
comforting. Everywhere he found too many people
earnestly intent on not minding their own business.
A Sacramento July was hot and withering, a San
Francisco July was cold and shivering; indeed, the
climate of California he believed to be changing. The
fact is, Mr Belcher Kay was unhappy. The vigilance
men were after him, and he knew it. There were
among them those whom the June fire, a most un-

TIIK NKW UABKAS CORPUS.

3U!)

re a
It

han-

uow

were

' the

3 lay

I best

rests.

! and

y was

ve in.

)eo\)l*'

) were

rcatcd

about

money

stolen

afe car

secure

w pro-

es who
might

hft the
them-
judges
[rascal;
ible.
ir Kay
Iscience
as not
people
[isiness.
a San
id, the
The
^ilance
|e were
ost un-

fortunate kindling at this juncture, had for the third
or fourth time stripped of every dollar; and he knew
that, too.

No time was to be lost. To flee the country was
impossible ; every avenue of escape was closely watched.
There was but one refuj^e left, anil that had never
failed him — his benign mother, the des[)erado's alma
inafcr, the law.

Assuming the costi'me of an elderly female, he
dodged a detachment of the San Francisco Committee
sent u|) to arrest him, cut across the country to Stock-
ton, thence to San Jose, and uj) to San Iwuh -iscu.
Here, on the IGth day of Jul}', ho drove to court in
a buggy, still disguised us an old wojnan. that he
might swear out a writ of hahca.s corj • v for his
own body before some one else should snatch it
from liirv

Mr T. Belcher Kay did not, however, arrive at
court a stranger. Before leaving San Francisco he
liad taken steps to legally secure himself to himself
On the llth of July, the day of Stuart's execution,
one William Thompson Jr. appeared before Hugh C.
^lurray, of inglorious fame, then chief justice of the
supericn- court of San Francisco, and swore, to the
best of his knowledge and belief, that T. Belcher

• 1 •

Kay was unlawfully restrained (jf his liberty and im-
j)risoned by a great number (jf persons styling them-
selves the Vigilance Counnittee, and that the said
]>ersons were endeavoring to conceal the said T.
Belcher Kay in order that ho might not be reached
by legal process until they could strangle him ; where-
upon the said court, bewailing such a fate for a free
city-burner, directed Sheriff Hays to seize the body
of the said Kay wdienever and wherever it might be
found, and to liold it safely for himself and for the
law. Now the truth of the matter is that the Vigil-
ance Committee had never had the '">ody of Mr Kay
in their possession, else the affidavit of Mr Thompson
would have been useless.

Fop. Tbib.. Vol. I. U

i I

MINOR RASCALITIES.

From Sacramento the 13th of July Mr Kay wrote
the San Francisco Vigilance Committee as follows :

"Being informed that certain grave charges have been preferred against
me by the man Stuart, and that you wish to try me on said charges, I now-
state to you that I am ready and willing to meet the same, and will volun-
tarily deliver myself up the moment you may send for me, trusting to your
honor for a fair and impartial trial, and beg of you to secure for me as counsel

Geary Austin, Esq. "Very respectfully,

"T. B. Kay."

How Mr Kay kept this promise we have already
seen.

Commenting on the action of the court in Kay's
case, the Herald of July 24th says:

"Wlien a writ of habeas corpus was sued out in the case of William
Walker, an honest citizen, whose sole crime was a conscientious discharge of
liis duty, the applicant was knocked about from court to court like a shuttk'-
cock, and seven days elapsed before he was restored to his liberty, while here
in the case of a man charged witli felony, known to have been the companion
of thieves and burglars, and suspected of being their confederate, the portals
of justice open wide to receive him even liefore he knocks for admission, and
a process issues to restore him to liberty before he is known to be in durance.
All according to law, perhaps ; but if it be so, then that law acts directly for
the oppression of the honest man and the immunity of the knave. We cannot
believe the law was ever intended for any sucli purpose. We repeat, then,
that here is a case demonstrating the necessity of a Vigilance Committee anil
disproving all the cant indulged in about tlio sacredncss of the courts. Tlicst'
institutions are formed for the purpose of dispensing justice, and if they do
not answer that purpose tliey are worse than useless. "

Mr Thompson was indicted by the grand jury for
perjury. Mr Belcher Kay was discharged by tht;
court on the 1st of August, and immediately took
passage for the cast.

Other minor matters claim attention. One Fran-
cisco Guerrero, on the 12th of July, was murdered at
the Mission. The coroner's jury, whose investigation
was made in the presence of the Vigilance Committee,
named Francis Le Bras ps the murderer. The Com-
mittee, from the evidence, were not fully satisfied that
Le Bras was guilty of the crime; nevertheless they
retained him in their custody.

COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS.

371

rrote

rs:

against
, I now
i volun-
to your
counsel

iAY."

jeady
Kav's

William

icharge of
a shuttk"
vhilo hci(;
jompanion
,he portals
ission, ami
11 durancu.
irectly for
^Vo cannot

icat, then,
mitteo ami
[•ts. These

if they ilo

jury for
J by the
llv took

Fran-
Icred at
bigatioii
imittee,
ic Com-
ied tlitit
Us they

The Committee continued to take testimony for
and against the prisoner all that day and part of the
next, without being able to convict. Meanwhile the
sheriff, with a posse comitatus and writ of arrest,
knocked at the door of the Vigilance Committee
rooms and demanded the person of Francis Lc Bras.
The sheriff was politely informed that after the Com-
mittee had acted upon the case they would determine
what disposition to make of the prisoner. At the same
time the sub-committee, to whom the case had been
referred, recommended that no notice should be taken
of the writ, and if it be thought advisable to submit
the case for trial at court by the authorities, to do so
of their own free will, and meanwhile to keep in cus-
tody the prisoner. The executive committee concluded
finally to surrender the prisoner to the civil authorities,
taking from the sherifl* a receipt for the delivery of his
person. Upon this action the Herald ol)scrves:

"The Committee's course in this matter sufficiently refutes the charged
that have been made against them that they were anxious to assume supremo
powers and seize every opportunity of exercising judicial functions. As the
community will perceive, they have licretofore confined tlicir action exclu-
sively to cases where tlio guilt of the offenders was established lieyoud the
possibility of cavil or doubt; and so strictly have tliey adhereil to this course
that, whatever other charges have been urged against tliem by their opponents,
none liave been so reckless as to aasert that they Jiave ever punished an inno-
cent man."

Herewith I give copies of receipts for prisoners de-
livered by the Vigilance Committco of their «jwn free
and deliberate will to the oiUcers of tlie law.

"San Fraxcis(;o, July 23, 18.>1.
"Received of the Committeo of Vigilance of the city of San Francisco the
following prisoners, handed ovit to the sherill" of said county by (jrder of saiil
Committee : James Bums, alioi: J immy-from-Town ; Ainsworth, aliai Round-
head. ,

" The above prisoners being sound in liody and health.

" Received the bbovo prisonera from J. L. Van Bokkelen, of the Vigilance

Committee, Wednesday night, July 23d.

"Jou.v C. Hays, Shrif.

"Wm. Lambert, Keeper.

372

MINOR RASCALITIES.

' ' Received of the Committee of Vigilance a prisoner named George Arthur,
accused of house-breaking.

"The above prisoner has been received from J. L. Van Bokkelen, of
Committee, Wednesday night, July 23, 1851.

"Sam'l C. Harding,
" Captain Third Diatrict Police Station."

Jimmy-from-Town gave the Committee quite a little
chase, but was arrested, six days after Stuart's execu-
tion, near Marysville. His true name was James
Burns. He was convicted of various crimes, and sen-
tenced to ten years' . imprisonment. Jimmy Round-
head was likewise caught by the Vigilance Committee
and presented to the sheriff.

Afjain the tolling of the Monumental's bell an-
nounced the sitting of the Committee in solemn
conclave. At ten o'clock in the morning of the Gth
of August, 18oI, hundreds were seen rushing through
the streets toward the rooms of the Committee on
Battery street.

" What's up?" asked everybody of everybody.

" Don't knou', unless Adams is to be tucked up."
Adams, a noted burglar and boon companion of Stuart,
was found in a tent on the American River. He was
a'^rested by the emissaries of the Vigilance Committee
and brought to the San Francisco head-quarters the
IDth of July. But Adams was not to be 'tucked u[).'
The Committee were about to perform an act which
should mark the nobleness of their motives, the cool-
ness of their demeanor, and the temperate firmness
of their character, more conspicuously than even the
hanixint; of Jenkins and Stuart. One of the fearful
ills which should be fastened on society by this unrul}^
organization, predicted by the lovers of the courts and
court officials, was an ever increasing thirst for power,
which should rise to intoxication and degenerate into
licentiousness. Again we see the Committee, who
had spent their own time and money in the capture
of a notorious criminal, and in gathering the evidence

LAW-BREAKERS GREAT AND SMALL.

373

of his guilt, voluntarily surrender him to the consti-
tuted authorities, to be tried and sentenced in accord-
ance with recognized forms of law.

"There they come!" shouted one, as Adams ap-
peared at the entrance between the chief of the
vigilant police and a deputy sheriff. They marched
toward the county jail, followed by several members
of the Committee and a crowd of citizens. The spirit
of justice smiled on her ministers that day, and the
court was not slow in recognition. The lesson of alac-
I'ity had been well inculcated; scarcely was Adams
lodged in prison before the judge had him out, tried,
and condemned. Even the anti-viffilance ortjans
were satisfied to have the Committee act as a de-
tective police, and signified their willingness that
the organization should continue on that basis — sug-
gestions in regard to which the Connnittee were
profoundly indifferent.

Mrs Hogan secreted lierself on board of a ship lying
in the harbor, but was seized by tlie Vigilance police
and brought to the Connnittee rooms on the 19th.
She was about thirty-five years of age and (juite gen-
teel in appearance. Her carriage, one of the finest
in the city, stood at the door of the Vigilance Com-
mittee rooms on the day of her arrest, l)ut at night
the lady did not drive away in it, although tlicre was
not at present testimony sufficient for hav conviction.

Thieves arrested by citizens nt the great June lire
were taken, as a matter of courst;, before the Vigilance
Connnittee. One was publicly wliijtped and onlered
to leave the city. Five thousand dollai-s reward was
otfered for the ap])rehension and conviction btjfore the
Committee of any incendiary, and notice to that efiect
appeared in English, French, Spanish, and German,
in the journals of the day.

Dab was arrested one ni<jht on board the steam-
boat Neiv World, oi route from Sacrament^ to San
Francisco. Dr Kennedy, surgeon of the ahiy) Joiuifitone,

374

MINOR RASCALITIES.

was arrested for stabbing the captain — a system of
surgery practised even by some who could not show
a diploma.

Samuel Purdy, while candidate for the office of
lieutenant-governor, assaulted Mr Robb of the Stock-
ton Journal in such a manner as to call forth the
severest comments of the press.

The captain of the brig Hallowell was taken into
custody by the Vigilance Committee on Sunday, the
24th of August, for having caused the death of a
boatman, but after examination he was surrendered
to the authorities.

Early in July a tent on the Middle Fork of the
American River was entered and twenty-three hun-
dred dollars stolen from a trunk. Suspicion pointed to
one Hamilton Taft, who, having fled to San Francisco,
was arrested at the Branch Hotel by two members of
the Vigilance Counnittec. The prisoner asserted his
innocence, but on being searched gold dust and coin
were found upon his person, and a portion which he
had thrown into a sink answered to a description of
that which was lost. The man was then taken to the
Committee rooms, where shortly after he confessed
the crime. He was sent back, under a strong guard,
to be dealt with by the authorities at Auburn.

Arrentrue was indicted by the grand jury for at-
tempt to murder in the mines, and for assisting Wat-
kins to escape jail. Benjamin Lewis, found guilty of
arson by the court, was sentenced to two years in the
state prison. This was the highest punishment for
the offence as the law then st5od. Two days after,
however, a new statute went into effect which made
arson punishable by death. Lewis went happily to
prison, rejoicing in the promptitude of trials in Cali-
fornia.

Briggs, the 'Sydney duck,' mentioned in Stuart's
confession, was reported as being in San Francisco
on the 1 5th of October. All night members of the
Committee were on the alert, but the morning dis-

■ : f

SOME ARE SENT AWAY.

373

closed the fact that he had left the day previous on
the brijy General Cohh, or the British bark Francis,
bound for Australia, A committee was appointed to
wait upon the collector of the port and obtain the
requisite authority to search the two vessels. They
pursued the fugitive, pushing out through Golden
Gate in the steamer Firejly. Boarding the Cohh,
they ascertained that Briggs was not there. The
brig Francis was a long way off; the steamer fuel was
low, and they were obliged to abandon the chase.

John Goff was informed by the Committee that he
must leave the country, and many thought it an un-
just sentence; whereupon the Committee caused to
appear in the public journals the facts that Goif was
a convict, a bad character, and the boon companion of
burglars. In his possession was found a conditional
pardon, given in Sydney the 1st of ]\Iay, 1841), by
Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy, governor of New South
Wales — the condition being that Mr Goff might go
free in any part of the world except Great Britain
and Ireland; there his pardon would be forfeited if
lie presented himself Mr Goff was obliged to de-
posit with the Committee a sum of money as a guar-
antee that he would quit the country by the brig Veto,
bound for Sydney',

Mr Hetherington, destined to yet higher inglori-
ous fame, was at this time keeping a notorious den
at North Beach; being warned to leave, instead oi'
obeying, he applied to the courts for protection.
The days of grace expired; two hundred men sur-
rounded his premises, aiicsted him, and placed him
on bo.' 1 . a vessel in the harbor, there to await tlu;
first departure for Sydney. We shall meet this
gentleman again.

A young man named Harrison, son of an honest
and highly respected gambler, John Harrison, one of
the oldest in New York city, who was ordered by
the Committee to depart from these shores, had
quite a strange career subsequently. From Julia

r I

370

MINOR RASCALITIES.

I )

Brown, his prostitute mother, he inherited some
property. After favoring Cahfornia with his absence
he went to Kansas. Walking along the streets of
Leavenworth one day, he boastfully counted oti his
lingers to a companion eleven men whom he had
killed. Suddenly he drew his pistol, exclaiming, "I
must have twelve jurymen in hell to try mc when I
go there!" and fired, shooting a German cobbler at
work on the opposite side of the street. He made
good his escape. Next we hear of him at the head
of twenty-five desperadoes, playing soldier in 18G1.
Driven from the army for bad conduct, he lied to the
Indian Territory, raised a company of half-breeds, and
began a series of depredations on both sides of the
line. These bold measures were kept up till one
day, in a town in Arkansas which he had robbed, he
was captured by the citizens, who killed him very
dead: first they hanged him; then they decapitated
him and placed his head upon a pole.

In the matter of Saumcl Gallagher, accused of
killing Pollock, tlic Vigilance Committee declined to
act, on the ground that it was not part of their pur-
pose to lake cognizance of personal quarrels, but
ratiier to direct their surgerv against chronic diseases.
Rapine, with its attendant burglaries, incendiarisms,
and murders, the Conuiiittce made it their more special
duty to suppress, leavmg to the law private animosi-
ties and minor questions of justice.

Strange freaks of human nature were seen at times
about this strange tribunal. A negro confessed to
havino; started the late conflagration, and was arrested
bv the Vigilance Conunittee. After exa,mmation, m
which were r(>peated confessions and denials, he was
discharged. At another time a man rushed to the
door of the Committee rooms and attempted to gain
admission. Stopped by the sergeant-at-arms, he in-
sisted on entering to receive punishment for stealing.
He was finally driven away. And yet neither of these

B I '

MR JAMES DOWS.

377

men seemed insane, though they may have been a
little bewildered by a bad conscience.

More fearful of vigilant justice than that of the
law, some offenders surrendered to the latter and
voluntarily confessed secret sins, — instance the case
of Alfred Edmondson, who walked into the sheriff's
office o.ie day in July and stated that he had shot one
McKinley at a ranch thirty miles distant.

A reform was noticed about this time in the pro-
ceedings of street encounters. The revolver's click
was less often heard, and in its stead the air rever-
berated with the whizzing of the cowhide. Women
played this instrument as well as men; it was less
.sanguinary than the old way, and more in keeping
with the hate of v/^oman, who loves best that method
which inflicts the most punishment with the least
danger.

imes
d to
3ste(l

On one occasion when Selim Woodward was in the
chair and the members in full attendance, the general
committee had before them on trial a Mexican boy
charged with theft. The evidence was in, conviction
clear, and the only remaining question was the kind
of punishment. Some were for banishment, some for
whipping, and others for something more severe. Mr
James Dowes, then as ever a central figure for humor,
liad already addressed the assembly twice, and wished
to speak again, but the rule was rigid that no one
should speak more than twice on the same subject or
occupy more than five minutes. Dowes induced a
liiend to secure the floor and then waive in his be-
half, and raisin<jf liis lonfj, lank form liisjch above all
around, in that nasal twang and cjaculatory delivery
peculiar to him, he said: "Gentlemen, I do not wish
to i'atigue you; I beg merely to say that it takes no
longer to hang a man than to whip one." The manner
of it was more than the matter; the Committee
roared, and immediately released the boy with a simple
reprimand.

fjt

MINOR RASCALITIES.

Mr Dows, who was a fearless and vehemently un-
compromising member of both Vigilance Committees,
during the winter of 1850-1 kept a large liquor store
on Montgomery street, where Montgomery Block
now stands. Those were thirsty days, and thither
flocked men of every caste and color to drink. Side
by side drank mechanics and murderers, honest men
and thieves, the latter looking and listening as they
quaffed their poison. One night, when Mr Dows' safe
contained ten thousand dollars' worth of gold dust, tlio
burglars opened and emptied it; and next moruino-,
upon the spot, mingling with others whom curiosity had
drawn thither, were the thieves themselves, quietly
taking their beverage and complacently regarding the
havoc they had made. Jimmy- from -Town was chief
of this plot, and subsequently Mr Dows had the
pleasure of sitting in judgment upon him.

As a matter of course, it was to be expected that
our celestial brother, John, should find occasion to
utilize this as well as other American institutions.
All Sing and Lip Scorn for some reason desired that
Ah Lo and Ah Hone, with two women of the neither
wife nor maid species, should be sent back to China.
They were bad Chinamen, said the almond-eyed, they
struck from the shoulder, kept a bad house, and be-
longed to the law and order party. All which was
not difficult of belief; but amongst millions of century-
smoked souls how distinguish one from the other?
What is the difference between a good Chinaman and
a bad Chinaman?

Nevertheless, as the first two named spoke first
their accusation — which if reversed would have been
very much the same, either party answering equally-
well for plaintiff or defendant — as they expressed an
anxiety to assist in purging the city in the latest
fashion, and by a method other than that of the stand-
ing Jackson-street emetic; and above all, as the}'
proposed to pay all the expenses of custody and

DOWNCAST ALMONDEYES.

379

passage back to China, the dread tribunal granted
their prayer. Indeed, they might empty every sub-
urban sink-hole in California on the same terms if
they liked.

But seriously, testimony of a sufficiently respectable
character to convict these flowery offenders of arson,
of having drugged and robbed sailors, was offered the
Committee, and they were compelled to depart. At
the same time charges were preferred by their coun-
trymen against Ah Loh, Sin Co, and Ah Oeh; but
this the Committee voted a conspiracy, and made the
complainants understand that the order of exile in its
application was neither universal nor permanent.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE INQUISITORS IN COUNCIL.

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding amall ;
Though with patience he stands waiting, witit exactness grinds he all.

Friedrich Von Logan.

We have seen that July was a busy month, and
the accumulated documents show that the month of
Auijust was not an idle one. Aside from the stirrinsf
affairs connected with Whittaker and McKenzie there
were a score or more of the minor members of the
now scattered fraternity to be looked after, corre-
sjiondencc witli country Committees had to be kept
up, the sij^nificance of legal technicalities studied,
trials held, witnesses examined, funds raised, and a
liundrcd other like duties performed. It is won-
derful to what a state of perfection the new ma-
chinery was brought within the first three months of
its running. Wonderful it is what men of sense and
skill can do when possessed of that power which
secures them alisolute freedom of thoufjht and action.

. • • • •

That political libertinism did not follow this deluge
of liberty is the strongest proof of the even balance
of their minds and the integrity of the hearts of those
who achieved this great moral victory.

At a general meeting on the 2d of August a
committee was appointed to report on the use and
abuse of the writ of habeas corpus. Devised in the
hour of oppression, observed the committee, as a
safeguard of liberty it is one of the most precious
rights of man. The intention of the writ is to relieve

from unjust confinement a person accused but not

[;»80]

THE QUALITY OF HABEA8 CORPUS.

convicted of crime, on condition that he offer suf-
ficient security to appear and answer to the oharij^o
when called for. The question in this connection is,
May it ever be disre<^arde<l? The weakness of the
habeas corpus lies in the fact that to insure its rapid
action the rij^ht of granting it must be vested in many
officers. False testimonv or an oath made on erronc-
ous information may in an instant wrest from the hand
of justice the criminal whom it has re(|uired much
labor and expense to secure, and tluis this gr-eatust of
civil blessings may in effect prove baneful. It is
against the abuse of the habeas corp'is that tlie peo[)le
are called to raise their voice. A peculiar contUtion
of society may render the unrestrained use of the
writ dangerous to the state. Policy sometimes re-
quires its suspension — instance the wars of tlie
Jacobins, En<;land during the reign of Georsjfe I. and
at various ej)ochs. Should the Vigilance Committee
deem it expedient to resist the writ ujion occasions,
it has the sanction of precedent. The existence of
this Committee, formed as it is of the best material
of society, is proof sufficient of its necessity. The
writ of /uiJteas eo. pus, among other mechanisms of
tlie law, has certainly been em[)l()yed for shielding
iniquity, and it remains either for the Committee
of Vigilance to degenerate into a mere detective j)olice,
or to free itself from the fear of resisting the writ
when they see it abused. They cannot afford to catch
criminals for habeas corpus, or any othei- law trick, to
liberate. Such, and more of the same tenor, the gen-
tlemen appointed rej)orted to the Committee; account-
ing it the right of the Committee to regulate the writ
of habeas corpus, or anything else affecting the wel-
fare of the commonwealth.

Prompted by their gratitude to those who had re-
stored safety to the city, the ladies of San Francisco
presented to the Committee of Vigilance a banner of
blue silk, emblazoned with a border of oak, olive, and

382

THE INQUISITORS IN COUNCIL.

fig leaves, emblematic of strength, peace, and plenty;
inscribed on one side were the words, in golden char-
acters:

"The Vigilance Committee of the City of San FranciBco:

Instituted June N, iSSl,

For the Protection of the Lives and Property

of the Citizens and Residents of the

City of San Francisco.

Const., Art. /."

And on the reverse :

"Presented to the Vigilance Committee

of the City of San Francisco

By the Ladies of Trinity Parish, as a

Testimonial of their Approbation.

•DO KIQHT AND FEAll NOT!"
August 9, 1851."

Estimating the compliment by its cost, which was
nearly one thousand dollars, we may believe that the
gift was from the heart. The banner was presented
by Benjamin S. Brooks, in a neat and pertinent speech,
which concluded as follows :

"This gift comes with peculiar appropriateness from the ladies. At the
time that this society was organized our situation was very different from
what it is at present. It is true that the strong man, with loaded revolvers
in liis pocket and bowie-knife concealed in his breast, might defy the attacks
of the Sydney convict, and the refuse of all the world which infested our city,
hut it was different with the weak and defenceless woman. She who sits
patiently at home waiting for her husband's return from his business, in every
noise about the hoi'se she fears the burglar and the robber. If she leaves the
liouse, a thousand >ars beset her for the safety of her children ; if the husband
is delayed beyond 's usual time, a thousand fears, a thousand horrid visions
of murder, and oi vge, and violence come upon her heart, and fill her with
anguish and disma Such was San Francisco ; but now we live in peace. We
sit beneath our vine id fig tree happy and secure, and woman's heart feels,
and this her gift cXj isses, her gratitude. Gentlemen, accept this gift, and
all your actions, in .1 the assaults which may be made upon you by those
who hate, or those v o fear, or those who doubt, remember the motto which it
bears, 'Do right and fear not,' for in the end blessings will ever reward you
for your laborious vigilance for the protection of our lives and property."

DONATIONS AND CONGRATULATIONS.

Committeeman No. 404, at the general meeting of
August 9th, offered the following resolution, which
was adopted:

"WitKREAS, There is a United States law inflicting a fine of one thousand
dollars upon captains of Teasels for each con\'ict that they hring from the penal
colonics of Great Britain to the United States, one lialf of which fine is awanletl
the informer; therefore,

"Renohrd, Tiiat the executive committee bo (lirectc<l to lodge infonnation
forthwith against the captains now in port who have Iwen guilty of this offence,
and to prosecute tliu matter, and that the proceeds bo appropriated to the ob-
jects of this Committee."

A letter was received from Messrs Flint, Peabody,
and Company, inclosing one hundred dollars. The
j^ift was accompanied by a letter couched in the fol-
lowing terms:

"Plciise find herewith check for one hundred dollars, which wc ask you
to accept as a small token of our appreciation of your efforts to punish iiiid
suppress crime in our midst. We have sympathized with you since your first
(irgani?4ition. We appreciate your labors in behalf of tliiscity ; and knowing
that you have been iit much expense, we deem it our duty to bear some shart-
I if the sam<\ We trust that in the present crisis your action will be charac-
terized by your usual prudence and firmness, and that you will not entertain
a thought of discontinuing your efforts in so noble a cause."

During the month of September there was a slight
falling off in the volume of business transacted : still
there was sufficient work to keep up the enthusiasm
of the association. Many offenders wore captured
aufl delivered to the sheriff. Between the Com-
mittee and the authorities general good-fellowshi[)
now prevailed.

The latter had vindicated the ruffled dignity of the
law in their futile attempts to baffle the will of
the people; wliilo the former, having achieved in the
accomplishment of its purposes a proud success, with
calm complacency held steady the reins of govern-
ment, bidding the law take heart and have no fear as
to tlie ultimate result.

The following report of the executive committee to

384

THE INQUISITORS IN COUNCIL.

the general committee exhibits the status and senti-
ment of the association at this time :

"Executive Cuamber, September 6, 1851.
"To the gentlemen composing the Committee of Vigilance qf San Francisco:

"The executive committee of yourbody havolabored arduously to accom-
Ijlis'i the business committed to them, in the discharge of which they have
li;id but a single eye to the safety and prosperity of their fellows. It is with
much sincere satisfaction that they are enabled to say that the reports before
you embrace action in relation to every prisoner in their charge, and it now
only remains for your sub-committee to see the prisoners depart and not keep
them in duress.

"We also have heartfelt pleasure in communicating the fact that many of
the prisoners not only are enabled to pay their own pass;igcs, but are willing
to depart in perfect satisfaction with the acta of the Committee ; your coiii-
mittce have rendered them every facility that humanity and prudence could
dictate.

"Amongst the cases before us were two of husband and wife ; those two
oases demanded ,r attention; your committee have separated the parties
for their own good, and by tlio separation may bo the means of saving mucli
anguish. Our labors arc now completed, and so far peace and security have
attended our clibrts for tlic public good; wc earnestly lioi)e that the blessing
of Almighty God may rest upon us ; may the cessation of our labors be no
cauHc on the part of the vicious to renew their course of life to the injury of
the people. We trust that those in power at tliis time, and those who shall
succeed them by reason of tlic late election, may so learn wisdom that in the
exercise of their representative duties tliey may case the weight from the
shoulders of their constituents, and thereby honor their common country and
preserve their institutions unsullied. It will now become you to adopt some
action for tie future, to so base tlic present institution that it may silently be
a terror to all evil-doers and a rewarder of all that do well; that it may be
the guardian spirit of the land. With feeling of high respect and esteem,
"Believe me, your obedient ser\'ant and well-wisher,

"S. Payhan."

Eighteen 'nembers were present at the meeting of
Scptouibor 27th, and thirteen the 30th of September.
Nino members constituted a quorum from this date.
At the former of these meetings Sehm E. Woodworth
was elected first vice-president and G. W. Ryckman
second vice-president. At the latter meeting Mr
Ryckman stated that there was then a Mexican in the
city v'ho had committed seven murders, one of them
within a w^ek, and moved that he should be arrested.
After due discussion it was decided that under their

REORGANIZATION.

385

)1.

:o:

icotn-
have
1 with
before
it now
t keep

lany of
willing
ir com-
;e coulfl

lOSc two
5 parties
n(T mucli

rity lia\<"
3 blessing
)r8 be no
injury of
svlio sluiU
liat ill the
from tl>e
LUitry iiutl
llopt some
(ilently be
it may be
ibteem,

^EAN.

ting

icmbcv.
IS (late,
hvorth
rckman
iicr ISlv
tn tlio
If them
IresteJ-
Isr their

lato reorganization the executive committee were not
autborizcd to make arrests. It had been the hope of
the Committee that they would bo called upon to
make no more arrests, but this was not to be. In anv
event the sentiment was worthy of them, showing as
it did their lionesty, good sense, and manliness. They
had no desire to cloof the wheels of jfovernment or
throw obstacles in the way of ilue administration
(jf law. Though possessed of ample power tliey
would use it only upon principle ; they would not even
permit themselves to stand before their fellows and
before the world a palpable and permanently organized
oligarcliy. Amidst the many broils and civil wars
which history loves to paint, almost all of which arc
purely for personal or party aggrandizement, it is re-
freshing to see able and honest men acting from motives
of unquestioned purity.

Subsequently, modified power to make arrests was
.again given the executive connnittee by the general
committee, but no important action should be taken
unless formally sanctioned by the general committee.

New by-laws were submitted and approved the
27th of September, organizing the body anew with a
president, two vice-presidents, a secretary, treasurer,
and sergeant-at-arms, all of wliom should ])e elected
for a term of six months. Stated meetings were to
be held every Wednesday. On the 2d of October a
salary of one hundred and fifty dollars a month was
voted the sergeant-at-arms, whose duties consisted in
keeping the roonio and ))roj)erty of the Conmiittee,
serving notices, and exercising supervision over the
I)risoners, should there l>e any. The following meet-
ing, held the 8th of October, voted the secretary a
salary of one hundred tlollars a month.

These by-laws read as follows:

"There shall be elccteil monthly a president, secretary, and treasurer

of the Committee of Vigilance. There shall be appointed by tlio Conimitteeof

Vigilance a sergoant-at-arms, a marshal, or chief of police, and five assistant

marshals ; also an executive committee of twenty members, the president of

Pop. Tbib., Vol. I. 33

386

THE INQUISITORS IN COUNCIL.

the Vigilance Committee acting as ex ojficio president of the executive cammit-
tce. The remainder of the Committee of Vigilance shall be divided into
squads or companies of twenty men each ; each squad shall elect its own cuji-
tiiin. The object of this subdivision is to make members better acquaint! d
one with the other, and each captain with the whole of his particular com-
pany. At the present time there will consequently l)e about thirty captains.
The companies shall be numbered from one to thirty. It will be the duty of
each captain to see that the men under him attenu properly to guard and
other duties assigned them. That tiiey pay their fines and dues 'vhen delin-
quent ; and he shall report them for bad or suspicious conduct, as well as for
neglect of duty, when necessary. Two squads or companies will furnish the
exact n\inibcr of men requisite for the guard during the twenty-four hours ;
and they shall be ordered to do duty by the sergeaut-at-arms through their
captains in regular rotation — companies one and two one day, three and four
the next, and so on. From the companies not on duty the chief of police
or his assistants may at all times select such men as he may recjuire for police
duty, giving his orders to such men always through the captains of the
respective companies; as, for example: 'Captain of No. 30, I require from
your company by twelve o'clock three men, who shall proceed' — and so fortli.
After the chief of police or any of his assistants shall have taken or received
any prisoners, he or they shall turn them over to the sergeant-at-arms, pro-
vided he consider that the quarters under charge of said sergciint are suffi-
ciently secure to keep tliem safely; but should he, the chief, think projicr for the
better keeping of said prisoners to remove them to other quarters than thono
in the building used by the Committee of Vigilance, he may have the power
to do so. It is to l)e perfectly understood that until they are so turned over by
the cliief or his a-ssistants he, the said chief, be responsible for them ; but after
being placed in the hands of the sergeant, then he, the sergeant, shall become
responsible for the said prisoners, and the chief and his assistants shall have
no longer any authority to act in the disposition of said pri-joners, unless
notified to do so by an order from the executive committee. Should it
happen, however, that dnring the absence of a quorum of said executive
connnittee the sergeant-at-arnis might think it necessary to send prisoners
forth frcmi the building to more secure quarters, then he may have the pow(?r
to place such prisoners at such time in the hands of the chief or his assisttmts,
directing them to carry said prisoners to sucii quarters as he, the chief, nijiy
think safe ; and thereupon the authority and power of saiil sergeant-at-aniis
over said prisoner or prisoners shall cease, and the chief or his assistants
shall become responsible for said prisoners so removed. It shall be the duty
of the sergeant-at-arms to take all care and charge of the prisoners in the
building occupied by the Vigilance Committee ; to take proper means to pre-
vent the adniLssion of any but members, witnesses, or prisoners into said build-
ing; also to see that the said building is pr(J|)erly cleaned and ligliteil, and to
do such other iluty in the way of sendinL' notices and advertisements as iiiiiy
Ik; ordered by the executive connnittee or by note of the Committee uf
Vigilance. He siiall, moreover, have the power, whenever in his judgnuiit
necessary, to prevent all connn'.mication between memijers of the Committio
of Vigilance and uuch prisoacra as arc ia his charge, excepting the meinbcis

THE NEW BY-LAWS.

3S7

it-

ito

t..l

oni-

liiw-

lyoi

lelm-
isfor
ih the
loura ;
I their
1(1 foni-

polii;'-'
r police

of the
^rc fvom
so forth,
rcccivcil

rms, pi^o-

are su^''
icrfovthe

Ivan thor>e
[ho power
•aovcrhy
hut after
lU hccovne
ihall have
,,.s, unless
|S\iouW it
executive
prisoners
ithe power
assistiiwt^'
chief, may
lut-at-arnis
assiatants
le the il"ty
Incrs in the
jans to lire-
saiilhuii'l-
[te.l, anil to
|nts as "'"y
[unnttee uf
, jxi.lgnicut

jCo«»nitt^>-'
le mcinhcvA

of the executive committee, whose orders at all times, when emanating from
the cliairman of said comii;i*tee, he shall obey, but not otherwise unless signed
by a quorum consisting of fi^re of said executive committee. It is of course
understood iliat any order issuing from the Conmiittee of Vigilance by vote
of said Committee shall be oljeyed by the sergeant. The duty of the chief of
police and assistants shall Ix; to detail all po>!sea for the purjwses of aiTestiug
prisoners or guarding them when out of the building. They shall have the
power of making such detail at any time when so ordered Ijy the executive
committee or by general vote of the Committee of Vigilance ; and all orders
given by said chief and assistants arc to be implicitly obeyed by the pon^fx
so detailed. If at any time, while the executive committee or a quorum
of said committee are absent, it should be considered necessary for the safety of
prisoners, or for the purpose of carrying out any plan for the arrest of prisoners,
to detain all members in the room until said safety is insured or said prisoners
arrested, then the said chief or his assistants, and also the sergeant-at-arms,
shall have the power to close the doors so as to prevent the egress of any
nionibcr of the Committee of Vigilance.

"At any time that any prisoner is brought in during the alisence of a
quorum of the executive committee, it shall lie the duty of the sergeant-at-
nrnis to notify a quorum of said coimnittce of said fact, so tliat they may
immediately go J".to an examination of the cliarges against said prisoner. All
orders issuing irom the executive committee, whether to the sergeant or to
the cliicf of police, or to other guards, shall be returned endorsed with tlie
report of the pjirties to whom said order or orders were issued. The sergeant-
at-arms and chief of police are to receive their orders from the executive
ciimmittee, or by vote of the general committee, and arc to be particularly
under the surveillance of said executive committee. Duriuij the absence nf
llie mnr.shal and his assistants their authority with respect to detailing guiird.s
fur any immediate duty or the execution of any order from tht executive cijiii-
iiiittcc shall devolve upon the sergeant-at-arms. The chief of police shall be
allowed ingress and communication with the prisoners."

A committee of five was appointed by the execu-
tive committee at their meotinj.^ of October 22d to
act as a judiciary committee, whose duty it was made
"to inquire into the acts of the various judges on our
benches,"

Jes.se Seligman claims thirty dollars for a six-inch
Colt's revolver, and Wm. C. (Jrraham twenty dollars
for a five-inch revolver, the first lost in the arrest of
.John Kelly at the Mission, and the other wrenched
fiuni the owner's hand during the Whittaker and
^IcKenzie mclce. The claims were allowed and |)aid.

On the 24tli of September the executive committee
in secret session appointed a committee of four to wait

388

THE INQUISITORS IN COUNCIL.

upon the French consul and the collector of the port,
and from them obtain information concerning a French
.ship said to be on her way hither with five hundred
desperadoes.

The collector, T. Butler King, expressed his entire
aj)proval of the doings of the Committee, and prom-
ised his hearty cooperation. M. Dillon, the Frencli
consul, was likewise gracious, but he was sure the
report must be false. He said:

' ' The government of France would not sanction the shipment hither of
any of its convicted felons. Such ii course has ever been foreign to its purpose.
Under the existing constitution of the republic the government could not fcike
such action without special legislation, of which there lias been none."

The consul stated further that on quitting France
the name and occupation of every emigrant was reg-
istered. He called attention to the general good
character of tlie French ])opulation in California.

The committee then waited upon Messrs Marziou
et Compagnie, agents for the French emigrant vessels,
which were to bring hither five thousand Frencli-
iiion during this year. These gentlemen assured the
connnittee that the passengers by their vessels would
be a valuable acquisition to the country, being com-
posed mostly of mechanics, agriculturists, and honest
laborers. They promised further to instruct their
agents in France to examine emigrants and permit
none of bad character to take passage on their
ships.

All this looked very fair upon the surface, but it
hardly tallied with the evidence of John L. Hod<j[e,
United States consul at Marseilles, who writes, April
28, 1851:

" T?! regard to passengers, a great many are of the very worst class of des-
peradoes in lOuropc. 1 have reason to believe sonic arc sent at tiie expense of
the government. I should recommend j'our city authorities to impose a heavy
tjix on I'dl passengers from I'hirope, and to sufl'er none to land who have not
ri'gular psisspoi-ts from their i'i'.spectivc governments, with the vine of tlic
United States couaul ; it may be given gratis. If you permit all to land coming
from Europe, your country will be hlled' by u worse thou Italian banditti."

CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP.

3S9

)od

)Ut it

[odge,

April

Is of <U'3-

Ipeiise i)f
1 a heavy
iiave not

A special meeting of the executive committee was
called the 11th of November in consequence of the
stabbing of one McLean by Antonio Gonzalez in the
Mississippi House on Long Wharf Gonzalez had
been arrested by the Committee, but as it was a quai--
rel in which the plea of self-defence would be strongly
urged it was decided to be a case for the courts rather
tlian for the Committee. Accordingly Gonzalez was
handed over to the city marshal.

There was a special meeting of the executive com-
mittee November 25th to examine a charge made by
Joseph W. Gregory against one Sylvester, of Sacra-
mento street, of having sent him a shipment of b(igus
gold dust from New York. The Committee ordered
the arrest of Sylvester.

The meeting of December 10th ordered the city
to be districted, and collectors sent among the citizens
to gather funds for the liquidation of accrued indebt-
edness. A committee was aj^pointed at the same time
to prepare a suitable certiiicate of membershij), that
each member by paying for his certiiicate might con-
tribute to the treasury of the society. On the next
page is a facsimile of the certificate.

The following, from the Alta California of the 22d
of December, though somewhat ribald in tone, displays
the state of feeling at this time of the ultra -vigilance
party — I do not mean the executive, the real ])ower
of the party — heated as it was by the after-slurs of
law and court officials, and their organs, to whom the
Committee were ever most lenient and ma^jnanimous:

" ' The world is given to lying,' is a trite adage, if not a true one. And
of all the parties who can most justly repeat the saying, the Vigilance Com-
mittee and the press of San Francisco bear away the })alni. The gentlemi'n
of tiie Committee have been traduced and vilitied as men never were before;
their motives have been misrepresented, their acts condemned as damning
crimes, and all those who have countenanced and abetted them have been
(li'nounced as cowards or base pandcrers to depraved appetites for blootl for
tlie sake of pecuniary gain. Nor have these attacks been confined to any
l)articular time and place. Such newspapers as had the impudence have
given the slanders publicity upon the spot, while craven and coward souls who

THE INQUISITORS IN COUNCIL.

ALTA INVECTIVE.

301

dare not open their envenomed lipa here have vented their nmiicc through tlie
columns of Atlantic sheets, in order, like daaturdii as they are, to disperse tl>e
poison of their petty hate where it niiglit <lo its work of evil without the fear
of ccjiitradietion and without that danger of public exposure which uliould
brand them with the infamous title of liar. These palpable lil>els, these
bitter outiwuringa of hate, have been uttered in loud ami confident tones in
bar-rooms and other places of public resort; and even the sanctity of our
courts — those courts for which these innnaculate ussailers profess so nuicli
respect and regard — has been violated by the distempered ravings and scan-
«lalouB asseverations of men learned in the law. It is pleasurable, thougii,
to lind that the Vigilance Committee has outlived tliis storm of malicii>us in-
vective. Nay, more, it is a proud satisfaction to know that the good for
whicii they strove with such unusual and deplorable means lias been acconi-
])lished. Its eflects are everywhere visible in the confident and successful
progress which our citizens are daily making, and in the decrease of crime
and conse(iuent increase of si'curity which our political condition evinces.
These facta are broad, plain, and undeniable hero, and the Committee are
therefore generous enougli to allow these sliuiderers to discharge their volley
of vile missiles as they slink away into congenial and deserved obscurity.
Well do we recollect the horrible predictions which were uttered with
reference to the Committee. Tlie heavens were luiiig with black by the dis-
interested votaries of law and order ; tears of purest iiatriotism rained from
their unstanched eyes as they beheld the future ruin of their country; tlieir
prophetic souls were torn with indignation at the enormities which tlie blooil-
thirsty Committee perpetrated, juid their sensitive hearts were wrung with
agony at the inlu.'rent sinfulness of man ! llow vain, how foolish, liow weak
were they all ! Their gloomiest pictures have been proved but tlie silly cre-
ations of a childish brain, their stories of hobgoblins have turned out but
nursery tales, and their vaunted and pretentious predictions of ruin have
shown tliemselves notliing more than the fanfaistic structures of a moody,
misanthropic, and maudlin imagination ! But wc will not exult over a fallen
enemy.

"It is time, high time, that this wholesale denunciation of the press
should be ended. Miserable pettifoggers, pciiny-a-liners, and subscribtsrs to
slanderous affidavits sliould be told that they will not be permitted to pursue
such practices with impunity. The jiuVjlic should undei'stjuid tliat 8Ue)i
assaults upon the press are undeserved and uncalled for. Why sliould that
portion of a community wliose fortune it is to be the conductors of the press
be thus overwhelmed on every occasion with charges of corruption ami im-
proper motives? Are they not men of as much virtue, firmness, tiilent, aiicl
honesty as any other class? AVill they not compare favorably witli any other
section of a community, in all the characteristics and qualities which consti-
tute the reputable and good citizen? And yet every pitiful dabster who can
flourish a pen thinks he has a sort of riglit divine to malign, assail, and
bespatter us with all the slime wliich a filtiiy imagination can create at tlie
dictation of a wicked heart. We cannot, and wc will not, bear it. Wc owe
it to our position and to our self-respect that such vilifiers shoultl be placed
in their true light before the public; and wc mean to do it for them."

802

THE INQUISITORS IN COU.nCIL.

The school-master was early abroad, as the follow-
ing comnmnication shows, and with his disc'i})los he
did not hesitate to illumine the minds of men and
exi)lain to the Committee themselves the nature of
the strange work in which they were engaged :

" To the Premdent and A f embers of the Executive Committee of tlie Vigilanre
Committee of Snn Francisco:

"(Jkntlemen : — To-morrow evening (Wednesday) I propose delivering a
lecture on tlic 'Aniitomy of Crime,' illiiatratcd by the skulls of Jenkins,
Stuart, McKenzic, and Wluttakcr.

"Should you feel interested in the physiology and philosophy of the causes
of mental action which prompted these men to pursue an evil course in life,
I will be most happy for you to accept an invitation, which I now tender you,

to form part of my audience.

"Yours, etc.,
"September 9, 1851. RoB. H. Collyer."

Following are the forms in which communications
were presented to the executive committee by mem-
bers thereof:

"/iesolred. That the sentence of death pronounced on the two men
Whittaker nnil McKcnzie still remain in full force, and that nil necessary
means shall be resorted to to obtain possession of these men, and when taken
that tliey shall meet the punishment duo their crimes, as the voice of the people
demands it. Adopted.

"No. 591."

"Mrs Bridges, lives in a brown colored house on Bush street, aliove Mont-
gomery, whose brother kept a tavern in Sydney, will give information in
regard to a female landed from the ship Adirondack, whose house in Sydney
was a, reccptiiele for stolen goods, and has been the means of leading more
into vice than any other female in that eountiy. She has already taken a
house, and there is no doubt it will soon be one of the greatest cribs in Cali-
fornia.

"No. 152."

CHAPTER XXVI.

CLOSE OP THE FIRST CRUSADE.

That which turns out well ia better than any law.

Mi'iiander.

At the general meeting hold the 9th of Sejitenibcr a
connnittee of five was ai»})ointe(l to select twenty-five
or fifty names to be submitted to the Committee for
election as an executive committee, to hold for six
months, and whose duties should be to offer such
council and take such action as should best promote
the interest of the association. One week later the
committee reported as follows:

"Tlic committee to whom was referred the subject of selecting the names
of fifty or a less number of gentlemen to constitute nn executive committee,
who should lijld their offices for a period of six montlis, and to suggest such
other measures as in their adjudgment may be of interest to the association
and the community, beg leave respectively to report that they have selecteil
the following names of geiitleniiMi in number as candidates f(jr election by the
associiition ; that tliey recommend, upon the election of the committee, tliat the
association adjourn siiic dlv, and that the present acting executive committee
turn over to the newly elected committee all papers, books, and documents
emanating from the operations of tlie Conunittee since its formation ; that
twenty members of this conunittee shall hohl their ollice for a period of one
year from the date of election, and twenty for a period of six montlis, the shoi't
and long term to be determined by drawing; that tlicy sliall choose their own
otlicers, and shall liavo power to fill any vacancies that may arise l)y resigna-
tion or otherwise; that lifteen ihiys before the expiration of tlie six months
for which they are elected they sliall call the association together and sulnnit
a report in writing of their proceedings during the perio<l of six months, and
the association shall then elect twenty members to fill the vacancies of those
whose term of six months has expired; that said executive conunittee shall
take no action for the arrest of criminals, or in any manner interfere with the
due course of law, but should an emergency arise which in their judgment

[303 J

S94

CLOSE OF THE FIRST CRUS.VDE.

requires again the action of tlio association, they shall call them together by
such Higiuila as may be agreed on ; that this committee be instructed to watch
witii vigilance tlie action of our courts having criminal jurisdiction, and also
all men in oiKcial stiitions, and especially observe the operation of the laws
iit)\v in force ; anil should tliey deem it expedient to have Huch laws altered or
amended whereby greater facilities may be had to convict and punish crinii-
iials, tliey nuiy bo autliorized to petition the legislature upon the subject and
use their exertions to have sucli amendments carrieil. The association, bo
lieving that the community relies mainly upon them to shield it from the evils
arising from the maladministration of tlie law, will hold this executive com-
mittee to a strict accountability in the performance of this duty. "

On the 23(1 of September the following were de-
clared elected members of the executive committee:
W. D. M. Howard, Samuel Brannan, W, T. Coleman,
James C. Ward, E. Gorham, B. C. Saunders, S. E.
Wood worth, James King of Wm., James Dows, H.
F. Teschemacher, Dr A. B. Stout, ¥. Vassault, J.
S. Parrott, R. M. Jessup, James B. Huie, Joseph
Post, Charles Griswold, Stephen Pajran, H. A.
Cobb, George M. Garwood, G. W. llvckman, Thomas
J. L. Smiley, John W. Cartwright, William W.
Thompson, L. D. Kinnay, A. Kirchner, W. H. White,
John liayncs, D. Jamorin, James M, Swift, George 11.
Ward, H. M. Naglee, W. Burling, I. Do Long, W. C.
Annan, L. Maynard, W. A. Darling, J. F. Hutton,
Samuel Dewey, F. Argenti, E. Delessert, Charles L.
Case. Fred Woodworth, and Isaac Bluxome Jr.

Of these the following were elected officers : Stephen
Payran, president of the executive committee; Selim
E. Woodworth, first vice-president; G. W. Ryckman,
second vice-president; Isaac Bluxome Jr., secretary;
D. L. Oakley, sergeant-at-arms; George R. Ward, L.
Maynard, E. Delessert, James King of Wm., F. J.
L. Smiley, finance committee; Garwood, G. W.
Ryckman, Charles L. Case, J. F. Hutton, Fred A.
Woodworth, (jualification committee.

By the latter part of September the general com-
mittee considered its present work completed. To the
new executive committee were turned over all books
and documents thus far accumulated.

REOnCANIZATION AND Rn:;rOVAL.

SOS

, H.
t, J.

►scpU
. A.

>phcn
ieliiu
:man,
ttarv ;

}a, L.

If. j.
w.

3(1 A.

coni-
|o the

)00k3

Among those elected to ierve for tlie term of twelve
moutliH were Samuel Brannaii and Thomas J. L.
Smiley, and among those elected to serve for six
months were James King f)f Wni., Stephen PajTan,
\Vm. T. Coleman, and (1. W. Kyekman.

]\rr Bkixome was authorized to collect delinquent
dues and lines, retaining ten per cent thereof for col-
lection. A committee was appointed by the president
to j)repare by-laws for the guidance of the executive
committee.

From the grand jury report made the last of Septem-
ber I extract the following:

"The granil jury cannot help noticing the jnarked diminution of crime in
the city und county of Siin Francisco within the hist four months. Knowing
the anxiety felt by tlic ]H'oplc, and the disturbed state of the puldic niiud
wliich has prevailed for the last live or six montiia in our city on acoonnt of
the numerous acts of arson, thefts, burglaries, and nmrders wiiicli have been
committed, this announcement is made by the grand jury with the highest
sivtisfaetion. The strong popular resistance made by tlie people to their
criminality, the very cfunmeiidable and decided action of our predecessors,
and the cliicient, firm, and prompt action of the honorable the court of sessions,
have had a powerful influence in arresting the progress of crime, and for giving
secui'ity and protection to the lives and jiroperty of our citizens. As the
courts are the only lawful and constitutional tribunals to which the jieople
can look for support and t!ic vindication of their rights, violence and partial
if not complete anarchy will follow where they fail or neglect to discharge
tlieir duty without fear, favor or aii'ection. History proves that Americans
are a law-contiding and a law-abiding people, but wliere they cease to have
confidence in their public agents they will have their rights and property
protected by tribunals of their own estal)lishing until the laws can be executed
in the spirit and letter in whicli thi'y are written, througli tribunals established
by constitutional authority. While we regret the uso of such means for self-
defence, there is some palliation for sucli a course in the widespread alarm
which prevailed lately in our city on account of tlie <hingcrs that surrounded
us. Should the courts continue, as they arc now doing, to maintiiin intact
and inviolate the riglits of the people, under the laws and C(mstitution of the
state, we feci satisfied that no future attempt will be made on the part of tho
people to supersede their authority. We say, should they continue to do this,
conlidcnce will be restored, crime will Ijc greatly arrested, and tlu^ ciiurts will
become the hope of the injured and the oppressed, and the people their loyal
supporters and defenders."

At the end of September the executive committee
removed to their new -and less expensive quarters over

noo

CLOSK OF Till', FIRST CRUSADK.

!Micl(llot()n and SniilovH auction rooms, on the corner
of Battery and Sacramento .sti'eets. These rooms
were cai'petc'<l and handsomely furnished. vVt one end
of tlio executive chamber was a rostrunj where stood
tlie |)resident's chair, and in front of a «h'sk hunijf the
l»;inner presented hv tlie hidies of Trinity parish.
Behind tiie president's chair was an eh\i;ant mirror,
and in the centn> of the room a lar<^e tahlo containinij
hooks and writiniL,'' matei-ials. The windows were neatly
curtained, and the walls adorned with maps and pic-
tures. In an adjoininj^ room were stored the para-
])hernalia of the police, arms, chains, ropes, handcutfs,
and the like.

The effects in the old quarters on Cattery street,
no lomjer neede<l, were disiiosed of by auction. I
Lnve the inventory, as consi-'iied for sale to IMessrs
Cobb and Comjiany, which tends to fill a bLaik in the
picture of life in the Conunittee rooms:

32 Mattresses.
41 r.liinkota.
14 Pillows.
20 Sul'j lamps.
12 CaiuUostiL'Us.
1 Demijohn.

1 Jug.

2 Empty oil casks.

1 Pitcher and hasin.
1 Wooden bucket.
1 Cotree-urn and lamp.
1 ColTee-pot.
1 Lot of crockery ware.
12 Spoons.

2 Tables.

(> Small tuba.

2 Largo tubs.

i Harrel hard bread.

A Till) butter.

1 Tin lard.

1 Trunk and contents.
19 Window-curtains.

2 Tin basins.

1 Sniiill looking-glass.

2 Tin oil cans.
1 Tin pan.

0 IJrokcn chairs.
35 Benches.

Quite a quantity vS lumber had accumulated, which
was sold to Blackbui n and Thomi)son.

At a meetins; of the executive committee on the
24th of September, thirty-five members being present,
with ^Ir Payran presiding, a committee of three was
appointed to procure counsel for Mr F. A. Atkinson
in the case of IMetcalf vs. Argeiiti, Atkinson, et al.

ruKTiinn Rnot'LATioxs.

liich
the

Subsequently, a cluuigo of venue in this suit havin;^
hecn ordered, the president of the Sun Fivincisco
Committee wrote thi' president of the Committee of
A'i^ilanco of San Josl', recjucsting him to employ
every effort to jj^ain the cause.

The Connnittee rooms should be kept open day
and night, and no member should be admitted un-
less his dues and fmes were paid. The quarters over
^liddleton and Smiley 's auction rooms were taken, as
being central and less in jirice than other similar ones,
though the monthly rental was four hundred tlollars.

At this meeting the treasurer, Eugene Dclessert,
olfered to loan the association one thousand dollar.s
lor sixty days without interest, in ortler that the out-
standing bills might be paid. The offer was accepted
M'ith thanks.

By the 2d of October the finance committee were
enabled to report all claims discharged, and .''?"J.'5G."JD
in the treasury.

In the daily journals of the 2d of October appeared
the following notices:

" \yirr.REAS, An article has appeared in tlio Evenimj Pkitjitnc of tliii! day
statiny tliiit tlio Vigilance Committeo had ceased active operations, and in
couseciuenco of the general condemnation of llie conunercial jiapers in the
Atlantic States ; therefore,

" /.V.«)/i'('(/, That the Connnittee cause to be pnblislied in the vai-ious papers
of this city tliat tliey hold themselves readj f(jr action shonld the eonnnunity
be again sitnated as at the time of the organization of Kaid Connnittee, and
that no conunents of any newspaper can drive them from a conscientious
discharge of their «luty to their families and fellow-citizens.

" Ey order of the General Committee. S. Payran,

"President of Execulire Comjuiltee."
"Isaac BLrxoME .Tr., S<cntari/."

The Executive Committee of Vigilance will meet at tlicir

"XOTICE.

chambers this evening at eiglit o'clock.
" By order of Connnittee.

"I. Bluxome, Secretary.

"STEniEN Tayrax,

Premlent"

al.

Besides acting as vermin-exterminators the Com-
mittee officiated in other capacities of scarcely less

398

CLOSE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE.

importance. Not only did they oxcrciso a strict sur-
veillance over the courts and officers of the law, but
they kept within bounds the ebullitions of tho people.
Mobocracy they fi'owned u])on no less than legal liber-
tinism. Standing midway between popidar extremes,
they wore the great balance-wheel of the social and
political machinery. On several occasions toward the
close of their administration, and some time after
chronic villainy in its mightiest proportions had been
crushed, the Committee lent their aid to suppress
popular excesses as well as to bring within the em-
braces of the law all offenders on whom they could
lay tlieir hands.

If further proof were wanting of the integrity of
the Vigilance Conunittee in its attitude toward law,
it may be fountl in an event which occurred about the
time of its disbandment, — I do not say disorganisa-
tion. It was tliought not a little strange by some of
its adherents that a popular uprising which brooked
no dictation from any power, and which had ranged
its determinate forces against the existing courts of
law and forms of justice Vvhonever such contrivances
interfered with its purpose, sliould upon the first occa-
sion deemed meet in its own eyes lend' law a helping
hand and turn its frown upon the people.

Yet this is only what it professed from the first,
namely, that the princi[)les underlying the vigilance
movement wore no more mobocratic than revolution-
ary. These volunteers in the cause of social and
judicial morals would not allow statutes and court
formulas to prevent them doing the right; but they
were equally far removed from permitting their felhnv-
citizcns to overturn the law or (Appose it under trivial
or unnecessary causes.

In the summer of 1851 the clipper ship Challcwje,
Waterman master, sailed from New York, and arrived
at San Francisco the last of October. The crew was
composed mostly of foreigners, and those of the worst
class. Before reaching Sandy Hook the quality of

CAPTAIX WATERMAN.

399

the crew was so clearly apparent that the owners
urged the captain to put back and get new seamen.
Waterman was a bold, determined man, and thought
himself a match for any kind of sailors. During the
voyage the crew mutinied and caused much trouble.
Douglass, the chief mate, was stabbed with a dagger,
and the captain narrowly escaped seizure. Amid nmch
tribulation and danger the ship was brought safely
into port.

But during the voj^age Captain Waterman had
been severe and even cruel; whether unnecessarily
f;o does not appear. Three of tlie seamen had been
knocked overboard from the cross-jack yard in a gale ;
five died from dysentery on the way and one from
epilepsy the day of arrival. Many were maimed by
the blows which they had received durin<^ the voyage,
and on landing were sent to the hospital

Immediately on dropping anchor the captain went
on shore. Shortly after it was noised abroad that
V/aterman and Douglass had shamefidlv treated the
crew during the voyagCj unmercifully beating and
even killing some of them. B(^atmcn and sailors v.'ere
especially incensed by the account, and when the
vessel hauled in to the wharf a large number of long-
shoremen gathered at the foot of Pacific street,
threatening to hang the captain and mate the moment
they could lay hands on them. The captain deemed
it prudent to retire from the city, and Douglass, who
was then on board, sli; ped o\ or the bow into a boat,
pulled round Rincon Point, and escaped in the cliapar-
ral. This was the .TOtli of (,)ctober. Search was made
for master and male until late into the night, but with-
out success.

Next day the disabled seamen were removed from
the ship to the hospital, and the siglit raised the fury
of the crowd to the highest pitch. Two thousand
bel]'"'^. rent men gathered in front of tlie office of AIsop
anu i^ompany, consignees of the ship, and demanded
the persons of Waterman and Douglass. They were

400

CLOSE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE.

informed that those they sought wore not there; but
this did not satisfy them. Six of their number were
detailed to search the promises, but their efforts were

unavaihng.

Meanwliilc the mayor bestirred himself to quell the
excitement. He first appealed to the assemblage
itself, but the mob hooted him and defied the authori-
ties. They fancied themselves already iii possession
of the city, and would listen to no terms which coun-
selled moderation. The mayor called upon tlio citizens
to assist in the preservation of the public peace. But
in those days when all good men belonged to tjie
Society of Stranglors, murderers as the court called
them, outlaws as the mayor himself had said, who
were the citizens?

Then it was tliat the mucli maligned Committee of
Vigilance rallied to the rescue of the city's honor.

The officers of the CJiaUenfje might or might not
bo guilt}' of atrocities; but in either event this was
not the way to determine the matter. This was not
tlie way the Committee of Vigilance dealt with offend-
ers. Nor would they permit the mob spirit to dis-
grace them or triumpli over law. Tlioy themselvajs
had been called a mo!), but never were men more
malitxned. They had not a single element ol" moboc-
racy in their composition, except that they regarded
not, at all times, the letter of the law. The mob was
mobile, they were firm; the mol) was passionate, they
were cool; the mob hanged first and tried afterward,
they executed justice only after the most solenm
judgment.

In this instance, whatever the master and mate
might be, they were not chronic criminals or lawless
desperadoes, and therefore were not fit subjects for
the secret tribunal. They were responsible men, fol-
lowiuLf a legitimate callinij. It was a matter for the
courts only.

Then went forth the order from the executive cham-
bers informally to disperse the rabble. Behold now

f.'

THE VIOILANTS DIS?E?.SE A MOB.

401

ieuiu

hiato
,'lcss
for
t\)l-
thc

kaiu-
liiow

where centred the strcngtli of tlii.s people! Not in
statutes, j^overnors, or municipal powers, but in the
citizens whom the mayor had decried in vain. Within
five minutes after the order was i^iven the Monu-
mental bull struck it> sij^ni.'icant note, and on the in-
stant around tliat California-street crowd the cry was
heard, "Attend vi.o-Hant-;!" "Fall into line!" "March!"
And they did march, — straij^ht into the heart of that
crowd, told the leaders to begone, told the enraged
longslioremen to get them to their own affairs in-
stantly, lost woroo betide them. And they went; an
hour later and the street in I'ront of Alsop and Com-
pany wor-e its usual aspect.

Thus ended the affair so far as the Vigilance Com-
mittee were concerned. It is true tliat some time after
there was talk at Pacific-street whai'f of scuttling or
burning the ship; the captain was hanged in effigy on
the plaza, but no further violence^ was offered. The
United States Marshal boarded tiie ship and inl'ormetl
tlie sailors that they were at liberty to enter complaint
against their officers, and they did so. (.)f murder and
maltreatment they accused them. Doubtless these
men deserved the })unishment tlicy received; but it is
tlie attitude and action alono of the Vigilance Com-
mittee that we are called upon to note in this con-
nection.

The following lettei", directed to sheriif Hays, shows!
th< f'.' 'bug then existing between the Committee and
I hat

'^'.ncer:

"JRXEcrTivi: CiiAMiiKU Of Tiir. ('ommittkk of Vicilanck, "I
* "Sav FiiANcisco, August 11. l.S.")l. J

"To John C. ffni/.i, A'.f'/., /fi(ih Shrrijf/or fhr (j:i;iiiii<l ('oiiii'i/ oj' San Fr'iiici^ro:
"Dkah Sin: — I'ennit luc, on l>oliiilf of t!io * 'oniinittcu of Vigilanco, to ollbr
you till! uimoxed ruj)oi't, with tlio action tluiroon ; iinil in tlioir nanu; I olFcr,
witii the concurrence of my collcaijucs, the thanks of tlie Connuittci' for your
perseverance, skill, antl nssiduity in bringing tlie atlairs of our county i)risoii
to HO happy an. issue. SVts rej^ret nnieh that you jiei-aonally should have suf-
f Ted iuy pecuniary ineonvenienco in the prosecution of its financial allaii-H,
■ 1 earnestly hop-' that the pittiinee raised hy us may serve to cari'y out your
: I;., liuu expaot:itio:i3 and subserve the p.iblio oafjiy. As a public servant
I'm- Tiiiu., Vol. I. 20

I .

40.:

CLOSE OF THS FIRST CRUSADE.

wo have much in you to commend, and at all times as citizens will lond our
aid to assist you iu your legitimate course of office.

' ' May you long survive to serve the state of your adoption and receive the
good wishes of your fellow-citizens.

" Very, truly, your obedient servant,

"Stephen Payrax,
"President of the Executive Committee."

After the relinquishment of authority by tlic first
Committee tlicrc was httle thought of prosecution on
the part of any. Society was liappy in its dehver-
anco from outrages against person and property; tlio
law was happy in the assistance whicli had been
rendered in liftins: it from low estate and restorini>-
that righi'''.l power and place in the affairs of the
commonwoj hich had been denied it; and thieves

and assassins . re happy that heads were still left
upon their shoulders, and that affliirs were no worse
with them. Hence it was that grand juries, instead
of presenting indictments against members of the
Vigilance Committee, [)raised them in their reports,
while lamenting the necessity of the organiziition.

The Alta CWl/Joiniid of tlie 25th of August speaks
wisely upon the subject. Its editor writes:

" Every f'alifomian whose business lod him into the Atlantic states last
year knows with wliat horror the actioa of our Vigilance Conniiittee was
viewed tlicrc. Tho.sc who were not called there, who id the Atlantic news-
papej-s regularly, could judge something of the state of public opinion (is
it found exproasioii iu them. For once all parties agreed. All classes of
society, tlie enlightened and tlie ignorant, the honest and the dishonest,
the business men and the men of lei.sure, the philanthropist and the pick-
pocket, every one, in fact, united in one universal shout of dcnniiciatiim
against the Viv^ilancc (.'onnnittcc of California, livery one mourned the
f :dl of a young sister state which liad excited the wonder and admiration of th(^
wliolo world as one who had fallen to the very lowest scale of anai-chy. Ke-
piiblican institutions fortmce had been ovcrtlirown by a lawless mob, \\h>
delied the courts of justice. Law and order were at an emi. Lamentations
loud and deep were uttered ; ami for once the capacities of the people for self-
government were doubted. Anti-c:ipit;il punislnnent men exclaimed to thos^e
wlio had oppyscd their ctl'orts, ' See the cll'ccts of your bloody codel Blood fur
blood is no longer the cry; l)ut blood is now demanded for a few paltry
dollars, or for afo\vg.)jdj,and that, too, without a trial before a judge and jiuy '
Tiie evideuL'c is o;i'j"ci tj a m )h Uy a mob 1 These are the beauticj of tlio

A PLAIN STATEMENT.

4C3

system you advocate! How do you like it?' But such expressions elicited no
reply. No man who had been an advocate of capital punislunent would utter
one word in defence of hia former opinions; hut all concurred in the opinion
t!iat tlie institutions of California were irretrievably destroyed.

"One of us way in tiie Atlantic states wlien this excitement was at its
lieiglit, when every mail steauicr brought news of trials and e.vccutions by the
^'igilanee Committee; but it wjis in vain that we remonstrated again.st t!ie
i.liuye tliat was lieape<l upm this community, in vain that we told the people
thiit tlie best citizens of California composed it, and that they had leagued
tlicni;<elves together for the protection of their lives and their ])rojK'rty.
Again.st us they would say, 'If this Committee be composed of good citizens,
why do they not allow the proper tribunals to try those who transgress the
laws?' AVo urged the fact that the most depraved wretches in exist<!ne( ,
guilty beyond a dispute of the crimes ehiirged against thum, had been allowed
to go at liberty timej without number after going through the farce of a
trial by our courts, "ntil at last foi-bearanee on the part of our citizens liad
ceased to be a virtue. The people had too nuich evidence that our courts
had been coiTupted ; that the country ha<l been overi'un witli eonviets
(■:ie:iped from Van Dieman I^and and other parts of the world, and the Icr.i-
v.wy of our judicial tribunals was bringing new recruits every <lay. Hut no
cms would listen to us. People in the Atlantic stiites actually believed that
the press here supported the action of the Vigilance Committee only througli
k-.iv of having their ollices pulled <lown and their types and presses destroyed.

" But the Vigilance Committee neither heeded the; admonitions of tiieir
law and order loving Vn-ethren of the Atlantic stiktes, who undoubtedly meant
well in tendering their advice, whicli w.ns v.'orth about the .same amount as
that eonuuodity u.iuallj' is wlien unasked, nor those who were crying foi- law
and order here, and who only wanted to escape tlic punisliment of their
tvimes. But the Vigilance Committee were the real friends of law and order,
a:id they have succeeded in estal)lishing .such a state of quiet and safety as
never could have lieen accomplished by our courts had they been never co
good. The men who were powerful here only for evil have sullered the ju^ t
rew.ird of their criines, or have eluded the argus eyes of the Vigilance Coiii-
niittec and iled to more congenial climes, tlic law and order loving cities of
t!i " Atlantic states. The tides f)f human feeling, like the tides of the sea,
have their ebb and flov/. They were ;it Hood tid(^ when our Vigilance Com-
initteo were doing their duty to the stiite, to society, ami to tliemselvcs.
Niuco that time the tides have re'.:jded. The tempest of abuse has been
.succeeded by a long calm. Tliosc people wlio expressed so nuich pity lot-
tho:;o who were hanged so uneer(nnoniou:ily here, U'lW tinil a few more left of
t'.ie same sort at their own <loor.i, many of which arc broken open o' night>.
Tlii^so poor i)ersecuted ])eople have .sought an a.sylum where law and order
was the cry. In New Vork and Boston is tliis especially the case. Burgla-
ries in those cities are of very fiX3(juent occurrence, and in the former city
highway I'obbcrics are not at all suriirising. A resident of New York had
been k.iocked down with a slang-shot in the night, but succeede<l in attracting
sulileient attention to draw the iwlice to the spot, who captured the robbers.
'i'lie ui:ui waa carried home, and took bis bed. When he was able to leave his

404

CLOSE OF THE FIRST CRUS^M)K.

house lie inquired for the robbers, and learned that they had lieen discharged
for want of evidence ! The press of the city, without distinction of party,
dfiumnces the city government for such hixity. Justice has been roblK'd < f
its (hie there. Xo one at all acquainted with the facts doubts it. llut who
believes tluit justice there is robl)cd of one tenth of what it was here? No
one. Our judiciary was in its infancy, theirs is in rip<,' nianhiMMl. Hut
notwithstinding this the people of that city have been talking of forming a
vigiLmce committee ayd talking the executiim of the laws into their own
hands! The New York TiiiHn, one of the most extensively circuLitcd
journals in the United States, has actually threatened the city govenunent
that unless they administered the laws better the people would do it them-
selves !

"Docs any one want any better evidence that tlic sober seccmd thouglit of
the people believes the Vigilance Committee liere acted othei-wise than for
the best interests of humanitj'?"

The coircspondonce of the London Ti)nes writes
from San Francisco as follows:

"Regarding this Vigilance Committee public fi'cling is divided. All in
authority and connected witli the administration of tlie law are against the
institution, wliilo a large numlier, I think a majority, of t!ie better classes of
the j)eoph! are in favor of it, and support it by voluntiry money contrilm-
tions. To understiUKl tlic statu of pul)Iic sentiment correctly it is proper to
aild that, however anomalous suc'.i an institution may lie in a free country,
ti'e I'onnuunity on tlie whole entertiiin no api)reliension from it, nor is it
feared that it will exceed its professed limits of weeding siK'iety of its pests.
Althougli the existence of such a body in any otlu'r country would probably
produce a I'eign of terror and break the bonds of society asunder, no suih
result is feared by us. The non -vigilance citizen is on as amicable terms with
the Vigilance t.'ommittee man now as ever. As to its composition, it is, Mk"
most large l>odies, a mixture of good and of bad men. Its elFect has indubi-
tiibly been to diminish crime, ami it keeps up an unobtrusive surveiUance
over the suspicious members of the Committee."

In a petition signed by certain residents of San
Francisco, and presented in the California legislature
by Mr Wood the 27th of January, 1852, requesting'
that a man named Redmond might be taken by the
citizens and hanged, we reach the irony of the ]K)p-
ular administration of justice. The petition was tabled.

In reviewing the action and effect of the San Fran-
cisco Committee of Vigilance of the epoch of 18.11,
one cannot fail to observe with how little punishment
a great reform had been accomplished. No sooner

A MORAL VICTORY.

409

did the power of the orfjfanizatioii bcj^in to be felt in
its full force than criminality was dissipated. Des-
})orad(jes, knowiiiLj that sure and swift punishniciit
would follow their evil deeds, paused, then scattered in
every direction, glad to effect their escape. California
ceased to be the place for them. Thieving was no
longer the safe and pnjfitablo occupation of f )riner
days. Profit was not commensurate with the risk.

And what had the Vigilance Committee done to
(>lfect this tjreat and sudden change? It was not in
the extent or magnitude of their [)unislHnents. They
liad executed but four persons, when fourscore should
have been hanged, if law had done its sim[)le duty.
And fourscore executions could have occurred under
condenmation of the law without excitin»jf half the
teri'or caused by these four executions by the people.
Evil-doers were well ac(|uainted with the law. Tliey
knew exactly what to (le[)end upon in regard to law.
'I'hey knew wherein they might exi)ect the law to be-
friend them, and wherein to punish; where courts
could be emjjloyed as ])rotection, and in what respects
it were best to avoid them. During this golden ago
of crime in California, like the lion and the lamb
they and the law had often lain down together. Coui'ts
were the legitimate lisks attending their occujnition.
They had no quarrel with the courts; but this new and
worse than infernal agency was their abomination.

Under the old rcfjinie each limb of the law was as
well known to the professional offender as his own
limb; but under the new order of things every man
he met was a spy upon his actions. l\)pular instinet,
that greatest of social influences, he felt to be almost
inorbitlly alive, and the odds were too great against
Jiim.

The necessity for further immediate action seem-
ing no longer to exist, the Conmiittee laid down their
|»i>wer as gladl}'^ as they had taken it up reluctantly.
They did not disorganize, rightly believing that
should they do so, and the fact become known, crime

•' II

CLOSE OF THE FIRST CRUSADE.

Avoiild instantly return and take courage, and the per
nianont result of their labors prove of little value
Adopting the wisest course possible under the circuni
stances, they informed tlie courts and their officer
that henceforth, unless occasion seemed to require it,
they would not interfere in the regular course of jus-
tice; nevertheless they stood ready to aid the law,
by every means in their power, in any emergency.

As late as May, 1852, the executive committee were
still holding their meetings, but the records close
abruptly the 30th of June, 1852. There is nothing
to show any extraordinary adjourmnent, disbandment,
or ending of affairs. The chief concern at the late
meetings seems to have been to collect money and pay
the debts of the associati<m. One year of toilsome
duty at that time was no light matter; and the feel-
ing seemed generally prevalent that if there was
nothing more for the Committee to do, further ex-
penditure of time was useless.

CHAPTER XXVII.

EEFOUE THE WORLD.

Things do not torment a nmn so much aa the opinion he has of things.

JHoH!aif/iie.

Often in the most liberal governments tlierr> sprinii^s
from fanaticism an absolutism vrhicli rages as liercely
as any which may bo found under monnreliieal despot-
ism. In the midst of the vigilance movement there
were promulgated by its o[)[)onents doctrines more
extravagant, and sentiments more slavish, than any
enunciated by worshippers of the British throne since
the days of King John.

It is very easy to judge the actions of others, par-
ticularlv when we know nothing about them. Critics
are so much wiser tlian the criticised, are so much
better informed than others, that no matter what a
man may spend his life in studying, he has at last
to awake to the disappointment of finding a hundred
who have never looked into the subject knowinij much
more about it than himself.

The position assumed by a journal has too often
little to do with the principle involved. The first
(piention a newspaper proprietor asks in determining
which side of a proposition he shall espouse is, Whicli
will ])ay best? Clearly it was the correct policy of
the Herald, whicli even at this early date enjoyed the
patronage of the auctioneers and merchants, to sus-
tain the popular movement. And so with the AlUt
and the Chronicle. The San Francisco Morniiuj Post,
however, saw, or thought it saw, an o]iening on the

408

BEFORE THE WORLD.

other side. Tlier<^ woio too many viijiliinco joui'iials.
Tlioro were inaiiy o|)j)()sc(l to the Vii^ilaiico Coiuin't-
tee, and naturally enoU'L>;h the sentiment of law and
ordei- would increase with time, so that no little hun-
eomlu! mijjfht he induly:ed in l>v eond)atin<jf the cause
of vi<rilanco. 1 need scarcely say that the Cln'ouivlc
and the Post of that day were not the journals heai-
iuiLj the same names to-day.

'I'he Post, the champion of law and ordei* durinj^
the year 1851, as a matter of course warps all east-
ern intclliu^ence to its own ends. In its issue the lOtli
of Septend)er the editor remarks:

"An intelligent gentleman vlio lias just ai-rived in the No ?/)cr)(('C informs
ns that in travellint; throujflioiit the nintliern Btatcs he found hut one j)i-e-
vailiiij;; opinion with the class of men whose interests aro eonnectcd with (,'ali-
fornian trade, and that was that tiiis t'onnnittt^e, with its jieeuliar and i-.v-
traordinary organization, had injured the credit and stjuiding of this city to a
greater extent in the states than all the lirea and other calamities we haVij
ever HuH'ercd. 'J'his organization was urged as an ohjeetion in New york to
any investments ill Califoruiaii state and other securities emanating from here;
aad if the hanging of Jenkins on the old adobo had afl'ected nothing else it
had driven f'ulifornian securities down some fifteen or twenty per cent in tlio
Atlantic cities. If our credit is tarnished hy these proceedings it may he
called croaking, or what we choose, Imt it do«!a not alter the fact that the
meivhants and bankers of the east will regard us all with distrust, as a country
without law, as a. people ready to take life without legal trial, and as much
more likely to repudiate any obligations, ami therefore not to be trusted."

Deginninj.^ with the Lontlon T/nics of the 27tli of
August, we find written of Cahfornia:

"It.9 moral condition from year to year has Iwen appjireutly declining,
and in place of imperfect institutions we now .see a deliberate supercessiou
of law. Were it not for the current belief to incendiari.sni wo should hardly
Iks warraiited in drawing any positive inference from the cxtniortlinary recur-
i-ence of general conflagrations in these distant juirts. There certainly,
iiowever, is no paraUel in history to the combustibility of San Francisco.
The political age of the city is liarcly tlii'ce years, and yet it has been six
times destroyed by fire — desti-oyed, we learn, so totally that scarcely a s(iuan!
remained nnconsumed. It has twice sufi'ered grievously fnjin inundations;
it was horribly afilicted by tlie eholcrii twelve months ago, and its ordinary
climate is said to be destructive to European health. Xotwitlistandiiig all
this, San Francisco survives and increases at a rate leaving London and.
Liverpool far behind. The point, lioMever, to which wo would bespeak
atteutiou ia the remarkable moveuieut of opiaiyUj in virtue of which wiiat

LONDON AND RAN r?.ANCI3C0.

409

waa once a barlxirou:! proccm of vcngwincc or vioK'nco liii.i been traiisfonueil
into II ivcogiiizftl (iiHratidii of ]Hi|mlar justici'. lint it iiiiuit In- cviiK'iit to nil
olwcrvurs that an orguni/i'il iMaociation, powurfiil cnotigli to siiiktsciIo the law
of the lun<l in <)|H:n (lay, <^uul(l luivc! no posHible ditliculty i:i ainonding thu
ailiiiiniatration of thia law, .'lail they diivi'ttMl tlu'ir cll'orts t'> siKth a, imrposi!
instead of dispensing with law altogether. Very likely the jaiLs wito
defeetivc, tho iHjliee remiss, the assi/.es i-eniote, and the general prospeet
unsatisfaetory ; but we need waste no woid.i in observing that, in a coinniii-
iiity pretending to some eivili/ation, nominally well organized, and formally
iidinitted into such a federation as the Anierican Union, the exertions of the
eiti/ens should have been turned to su|»i)!ying these ddieiencMes iiitlier than
t.) instituting precedents of which no man can ealeidate the evil. The Hnglisli
reiiiler may jM'obably think it a superlluous consumption of argument to prove
tliat men should not be put to death by the agency of a mob or at the bid-
ding of a secret society; but tlmti^nor of our corresponili'nee thx^s really give
a gravity and im[>ortanee to these proceedings which such outnigcs woultl not
otherwise {His.sess. It is not denieil that the d(lin(pients had what in SaX( n
j'hrase is a fair trial, that Ihey were most undoulitcdly guilty, anil that the
system is operating to the terror of ollendcrs hithert(» incorrigible. In fact,
the principle avowed is that of kiIkii ]n>]>iiH ^niirnna lex. and the inhabitants
concur in asscu'ting that the tinu- for ajipc'al to this ultimate resort was uncou-
tcstably come. l>ut they must sui-ely see, upon relkction, that no calamity
can be .so truly formidable as t!ie sulntitution of force for hiw, and that if the
recognized machinery of justice be thus set aside, uncontrollable auiU'chy must
infallibly result."

Conwnonting upon this the editor of tho Cali-
foriiiii Courier remarks:

"The first sentence in the above extract is true in no om; p.articular.
The London Timrxin remarkable for its vindictive;iess and niisvepreseiitatiou
of American institutions and character. Our true charactei- as a pcojile has
rai'ely Iteen fairly presented by correspondents to joimials in the Atlantic
states and in ?]uropc. They have most generally songlit to manufacture mag-
niticent stories, for the purpose of having their connnunications i'ea<l and
si)oken alK)ut. To this source we atti-ibute in a great degree th.^ many al)-
snrd statements and unjust rejections upon the jjcople, tlii^ institutions, and
tlie climate of our state. 'J'he '/'iiiien is radically in error in stating that San
J'rancisco has been twice inundated. It has never l)een once, auil '■ ' never
expect to see it. The action of the Vigilance (.'onnnittee was th ;•.-', It of
high moral considerations. That Conuuittee has not only arri'sted ciime, but
it hus saved life and stinmlated honest industrj'. It has made an impression
that has jienetrated and penneated every portion of the commonwealth that
crime caiuiot be committed with impunity, that all men must secui'c a living
by the sweat of their brow, in an honest calling. We are not only thankful
for the good work of that Cor.unittoe, but for the salubrity and purity of our
climate, and the proud career which is opening for our people and tlic jiowcr-
ful young state of their udoptiou. "

BEFOnE THE WORLD.

From far away Vcniiont there come!? a ji^cntle wail
whicli makes one fairly pitv one's self for beinjjf of
California. Tims the l/iu'on WIi'kj:

"It ik[ipt!ar.» thiit at privsciit, Iut rupublicaii eonjtitution having been
fouiiil unauiti'il to the mural gnulo of tliu pooplo, California is govt'itiud liy
the most tcrribk' of all fonii:) of <k'spotism. Siicli is the only ground upon
■whiuli the present measures e;in he even palliated. If the mass of the people
fti'e so corrupt tliat no patience and vigor of constitutional ell'ort on the part
of the propei-ty holders can all'ord a hope of imparting jjurity and certainty
to the oi)eration of law, then indeed i.i society virtually resolved into its ele-
ments, the constitution has ceased to lie, and some form of self-protecti:)!!
must and ought to spring up adapted to the emergency ; in other words,
s )uie foi-m of despotism is the only alternative of anarchy for that people,
^lurderers unhanged, prisons and sherill" made the laughing-stock of culprits,
judgea corrupted, and crime stalking unrebuked at noonday, these would not
persuaile us that tiie stjite of thing.s we have supposeil had arrived. Patience
unci vigilance may gradually remedy all tiicse, if the niMJority of the peojilo
so resolve, in a constitutional manner. Ihit this lierce impatience of delay in
a lawful remedy; this vengeful swiftness to sheil blood; this unwillingness to
sull'ei' for tile siiki^ of constitutional liberty; all lies|)eak a people incapable of
self-government and ignorant of the (ir.st principles of freedom. The prob-
lem for Califi)rni;i, in thi^ first place, is not .so much whether her laws can be
made m-.)re strin'^ent and summary for the emergency, her courts 'rifled,
and her prisons fortilied, as whether her people can be brought bac' asou

and the constitution. This done, the former may follow at once."

Ami ajifain the Californ'ia Courier takes up the
gauntlet:

" In the outset the editor assumes that it had been discovered that the
republican constitution and laws of this state were found unsuited to the
moral grade of the people of (California ! Upon what information docs the
eilitor found such an as;-iumptioii? On the contrary, the constitution and hiws
of California are aihnirably suited to our wants, so far as criminal matters ar.i
concerned. Had he been Iicrc and investigated the real state of affairs he
would have discovered that it was for want of the proper enforcement of these
laws that the services of the Vigilanci! Committee were brought into requi-
sition. Piut the writer talks about patieucy and constitutional effort to briii;,'
about a remedy hn- the evils under which we laboretl. Patience ! Let the edit' ir
liav<' been placed in the situation of a Jansen, or of a l)rother of Reynold;,
or of the sixty men who had sufiered death at the hamUs of the assassin in
our city during the year previous, or of one of the thousands who sutl'ered
from the torch of the incendiary, an<l reilect that in no instance ha<l punisli-
ment been inflicted uj)on the guilty perpetrators, and then talk about
patience! His heart must ))e colder than the snows of his barren (Jreea
Mountains had it not leajWHl for joy when a few men nobly came forward and
eatablishud that terrible but jcsi tribunal, the Vigilance Committee. There

fiiAP.nrs a:sD ansv.trs.

411

3 wail
jur of

iig been

H(l \\\x>n
10 people
tlie piii't
certainty
;o its elu-
rotectiDU
[iv wonls,
t jieopU'.
' culprits,
voultl nut
I'iiticiu'O
ic pcoplo
f delay ill
injj;iiess ti)
capable of
The pr<)l>-
ws can be
a 'rifieil,
asiiu

^ip the

that the
ed to the
does the
and laws
litters aro
Lffuirs he
It of these
|to roqui-
to brin;;
Ihc editor
Leynolds
|sa»sin in
suU'ered
puniish-
Ik about
III (Jreeu
^•ard and
There

ii in tlic above extract a studied attempt to create the impression tliat revenge
or the desire to Hhcd blood waj the motive wliieli actuated tiio fonuntioii of
tile ('omiiiitteo and its sulmeriuent conduct This idea no one here mIio knew
tlu; men eoniposin;,' it or who scanned closely their action will for a moment
t mntenancc. What were tliu acts of the Committee? Wiio ilid they pmiisli'.'
|)i 1 any innocent man ever utiller from their act;-.? 15y no means. On tiie
coiitrurj, what would liave been the fate of Uurdiie iiad it not Ik'cii for the
airest, conviction, and [lunislimeiit of Stuart? The former bad all lliu beue-
lit.i of the civil tribunalu, and yet v,ai under unjust sentenco for robbery and
iiiunler on two distinct clur.'ge;!. I'.ut the editor has maile the discovt^y that
tlie people of (,'alifoi'nia, who have been scarce two years out of the Atlan.ic!
states, and who hail from every portion of our great uuil glorious L'ni(.ii, are
incapable of self-government! Wliat a discovery, to be sure. Here wo uro
with t!ie constitution and laws upset, ineapalile oi government, trampling all
laws underfoot, and yet a tax-collector makes known that seventy-live thou-
sand dollars are wanting to meet the interest on the city debt, ami in a
week double that amount is raised -more money than can be Hi|iiee:'ed out of
tlie people of the whole state of Vermont in two years! The proi'lem of
wMeii the editor speaks has Jilready been solved, we trust to his .'^aiisfactioa.
So siHjii as the nest of villains who were preying upon us had bet'ii broken I'.p,
and a disjtosition was evinced to carry into i > cutioii our laws, just that .soon
did the Vigilance Committee cease to e.xeivise its powers. ]>ut we can (e"l
that editor, and all the world besitle, t!iat should the same necessity leipiire
it, tliey will resume their powers with twofold the iiumei'ieul stixjiigth wiili
which they before existed."

Tlius the Pliiladelpliia Lodycr:

"The news from California hy the llmtlirr Jonathan is interesting. Sail
rraneisco seems to be a city of excitement. In the absence of lire to keep up
a pleasant popular feruK'nt tlie citizein resort to a ditVerent species of amnse-
iiK'iit. and hang a in;in under the lyncli code by way of vindicating (lu^ laws
mill enforcing nioi'al honesty. A miserable wretch cau;;ht stealing has been
Mvized and h;in.';cd by a mob composed of the most respectable individuals —
respectable for wliat? Not surely for being good citizens, .sup[)orting the law,
and aliiding by its decisions. The faci; that tliey were ns[)ectabie citizens
who commiLted tliis act is iiienlioned, we suppose, to justify the outrage; but
it is time that respectability in (.'alifornia sliould be t:ui;^;ht that the Liw
was made for all, and that its authority should be respected by all respect-
able or otherwise, (.'alifornia has made a bad beginning in this respect; and
unless the real respectability of the place, the men who know that laws an;
made to secure their rights and cannot be violated with impunity by any mob
without injury to society, unless these men should stei) forward aiiil jiut an
end to such acts of outrage and rebellion, by assisting the lawful a;ithoiity
and properly punishing those audacious enough to set it aside, greater cahuni-
tii's tliaii liave befallen California will ensue, and iiceiies of violence, destruc-
tion of property and life, will Ijethe seip.iel of the matter. It .seems that one
of the priiicipal persona who figured in this outrage is not >ery reinarkublo

412

BEFOni: THE WORLD.

for moral honesty himself, for an occurrenco of very questionable honesty in
New York is related iu which ho ia char'jcd with l)ein^ the principal actor.
We see other names mentioned in the affair, of j)ersons who may still have
creditors in this part of the world who might be loath to trust tlie publi(j
integrity to their keeping exclusively. "

Great was the lo3:^ to California that the Ledgers
editor had not been there. It i;^ so ca«y to sit in a
f-anotum chair three thousand miler, away and tell how
things ought to be! Hear him again on the 18th of
August :

"This was a violation of existing laws, and rendered t'.iom technically
criminal in every proceeding agaiuat anybody's life, liberty, or property. Wo
do not justiry such proceedings. T!iey would be criminal in the last degree
in any other state of the Union ; and they arc criminal in California so f.ir
as they are needless. Tlic honest portion of the people might form commit-
tees to detect criminals and to aid the authorities in securing them ; antl so
far as their laws were defective they miglit insist ujwn an immediate session
of the h.'gislaturc to reform them ; and if tliey wanted confiilencc in their
judges and sherifTs, public opinion, thoroughly roused, miglit compel them to
reform or resign. We think tliat all tlie good done by these committees of
vigilance against law miglit have been <lono according to law, by cooperation
witli, instead of opposition to, the civil authoritiea. Jiut considering the hor-
rible state of tliing.s in California, tiio result, ia ii > 3;uall dogree,ofo!iicial laxity
or dislionesty, much of which was imported from New York, we do not ccjn-
<lcmu tlieir ]»roceedings quite .so severely as we shouM similar proce(!dings in
any other state. A self-c(mstituted tribunal cannot be tolerated under a regu-
lar and free government without putting all rights at hazard. But under
these pressing exigencies in California we admit that a salutory terror has
been inspired amcmg criminals ; and we will hojie that all good citLiens of that
state will aid instead of acting independently of the lawa. "

The New York Herald of the IDtli of September
remarks :

"The prominent and by far the most conspicuous feature of the California
news is the prevalence of what would be called on this side of the continent
the supreme autliority of Judge Lynch. In San Francisco it is the execution
of the decrees of the Vigilance C'oniniittee of live hundred, not quite ho
ceremonious as the old Venetian Council, in the prompt punishment of
criminals, ami for the preservation of law and order. Strange as it may soujil
in this longitude, these otr-haiid trials anil summary executions are in g;iod
fuitli ilesigned for the ])reservation,or rather the restoration, of law and order.
Tlie criminal may be a murderer, a horse-thief, a, burglar, an incendiary, a
common sliop-lifter, or a petty rogue, if the vigilance committee catch liini
aud convict him he is iustuiitly carried out and huugud up at the nearest con-

THE NEW YORK IIEHALD.

413

vcnicnt troo, or hcam, or rope and tackle. Tl»c crime, the p'.irriuit, the ap-
prehension, the indictment, the trial, the judgment, and the execution, may
all take place tlic same afternoon. The whole business in the east; of Jenkins
was done in the course of an evening, by moonlight ; and in the ciiso of Stuart,
unotlier liotany Iljvy convict, tried also as a tluef, the interval lK;twecn the
commencement of his trial and the hanging was alx)ut five hours. In the ca.so
of t'.ie Mexican woman at I>)wnieville, who for fatally stabbing a minrr was
trie<l by the popular jjrocess in such cases established and convicted of
murder, the blood of her victim was not yet cold when the woman, liaving
licen tried, convicted, and condenmed, was swinging lifeless in tlie air. The
Anglo-Saxon institution of the rope, by a sort of wittena-gemoto or comnumo
cDnsilium, may bo considered fis pretty well established in California; but
the rapidity witli which it brings the criminal to his (]uietu.s is somewliat
startling to a communitj' accustomed to the slower formalities of law. This
(piickncss of the penalty is even more astounding to our preconceived notions
l!ian the range of crimes wliicli come under tlio death penalty by the new
California cmlo. We have no nice distinctions Ijotween nmrder and man-
slaughter, Jior between highway robliery and a petty theft; tlie same judg-
ment of stmngulation makes short work of them all. Truly this is a teri'ible
state of things, and is deeply to l)c deplored. IJut the people of California, it
appwirs, not only have reasonable CKCuse.4 for these summary and imliseriini-
nate executions, but their sitiuition is sucli as imperatively to demaml tlicn.
The Australian convicts of England, the most dcsiHjrato ami lawless vaga-
bonds from every nation under the sun, have l»cen c(Hicentrating tlieir fores
in CaUfornia since the golden discoveries of VMS. They have become formi-
dable, dangerous, and criminally mischievous. Murd':rs and robberies wcrti
nmltiplying; San Francisco was in the jwwer of incendiaries, and her citi-
zens and their property at the mercy of thieves and assiissins. Tiu; existing
laws were inetlicient; they were so slow, and the means of coniim-ment of
oll'enders so insecure that the eliances were in favor of their esea\H'. Such
was the state of things which led to the Vigilance Committee and its sum-
mary execution of the judgnuiuts luider tiie new cinle. It a{)iK'ars that tliis
Vigilance Committee act as such without pay or emolument, but simply to
maintain the supremacy of the rights of life and property. There may be
tiien no lielp f(jr the existing stiite of things in California. It nuiy bo that the
imperative necessities of self-j)reservation have driven the people to these
extremities. Wo trust that law and order may soon be rei'stJiblisheil and
a.ssigned to some effective guardianshi|) uiider the regularly constituted
tril)unals of the country. We have no doubt whatever that the activi', liouost
business comnmnity of ('alifornia are lalK)ring to this end, nor luive we any
doubt of their iiual success in attaining it."

And again on tlie 2(;tli of Soptember with sonio-
what more of self-complacency:

" The news from California an<l Tiower ('alifornia is of a gratifying char-
acter. We are happy to find that the popidar tribunal at San Francisco, called
the Vigilance Committee, luis now surrendered to the legally constituteil ail-

414

BEFOKE THE V.'ORID.

ministmtors of the law the pcculisir functioiia which belong to ciich officers in
all civilizeil coniniunitics, nnd that this body of men who have been forced by
ciicunistances to usurp legal authority, in compli:inco with a popular instinct
toward the preservation of life and property, are now no more than a force
of voluntary police olBcers, snoh us are commonly found, though smaller in
n.imbcrs, in every vilh-.go in tlie United States where circumstances require
iiuc'.i an organization for the protection of societj' against t!io lawless and
licentious. It is to be hoped th.it other lynch tribunals iu the sparsely settled
districts of California will soon be dispensed with, eitlier by the issuing cf
legal connnissions or by some judicial means for bringing the ofTendera againat
life and property to justice. The execution of Greham at Greenwood Valley,
though conducted with extra-judicial forms of law, and with exterior pro-
priety, is an event to be deplored, however necessary such examples may seem
to tlioso who are beyond tli>' immediate assistance of legal authorities, nnd
wlio are excited to make terrible the retribution of society in cases of wanton
crime."

The Now York Journal of Commerce conoliKles a
loiiiT account of Californian affairs in these words:

"Wo invoke no sympathy for the victim. Ho was a man of crimonnd
blood, and his existence was incompiitible with the safety of society. The
vindication of public justice demanded hii> execution, but not by the infringe-
ment (if public law. Tliere was no risk nor peril to be appreheiided from a
juliei:il trial which the eonnnittee of seven hundred luul not ample power to
avL'i't. Judge Campbell, in his charge to the grand jury, says that under the
l:iw then recently come into operation, so amended as to secure the arjeedy
trial and conviction of ofTenders, the time requisite for the indict"!- .jt, trial,
conviction, and sentence need not exceed a wee!:; that amrle provision ex-
isted for the safe custody of criminals; and that so far from'Jicre being laxity
in the execution of the l:iws and the administration of justice, the courts M'cre
straining ever}' nerve to dispose of the criminal businesi' of the county. It is
Juondly certain that if the Vigilance Cjni:nitteo had surrendered Stuart to
the oUieors of the law when his guilt w:n estiibli^'.ied by confession or evi-
dence hi.s fate would have been t'.ie same, nnd the society would li;ive felt a
sense of security from the triumph of lav,- which tlie violence of popular in-
dignation can never iinpart to it: M had it turned out that the confession was
extorted by fear, and the evidence did not justify conviction, the result would
have vinilicated the justice of a public and impartial trial by a jury of i;ii-
prejudiced men, and exhibited the danger to which innocence is expired by
secret trials and sudden executions. The right of defence, the opportunity
of employing counsel and summoning witnes.se.s, which the law gives to the
accused, is a sliield for the protection of innocence, and implies no sympathy
with guilt. The annals of juiisprudence in all countries nnd in all tinu i
demonstnite the necessity of that security to the maintenance of right, nnd
that whore it docs not exist the weak and simple-minded are exposed to be
made responsible for the crimes of the wicked and the strong. If the state
of society iu California demands the exiutencc of a cotmnittec of vigilance,

OTHER NEW YORIt JOURNALS.

415

the action of that botly Bhould be in cooperation with the officers of justii^c.
Acting in defiance of the law, it iKjrpetratea abuses more dangerous than
those which it socles to remedy. The defenders of tliis association point to
its rapid increase in numbers as an evidence of its i>opularity. No wond<.T
t!iat pejplc aspire to enroll tluniiselvea on its lists. Wlio would not rather bo
the niadtor than the slave? It ii the supreme iK>wer in the ato''c. Its control
is unlimited. Life, lilierty, property, and reputjition are a- mercy. In
the language of the local judiciary, it overrides the laws and sets the consti-
tution at defiance. Its organization is extending itself by branches througli-
out the whole of California. At the laat advices, placing full eunlidencc in
the accusations of a muidei-er ami villain whom it hail just put to death for
Ilia crimes, it was scouring; the state to secure the persons of those who were
so unfortunate as to be obnoxious to his denunciations. Its usurpation has
no limit in extent of power, and it may be that. its limit of duration maj' bo
determined only when it amvts at a pitch of insolence that calls for action
ill virtue of the federal constitution, which makes it the duty of the United
States to guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of govern-
ment."

The New York yl^/(W observes:

"It seems that the civil commotions which have recently excited and
agitated San Francisco and the state generally have had the effect of crowd-
ing the steamers with passenger.-* for the Atlantic portion of the Union.
These men have become alaniicd at the dangers which of late I'.ave beset
lives anil property on all sides, and h.ive in conseijucnce made uj) their minds
to bid adieu to the Eureka state. ]<ut wc think tiny havo acted hastily in
iW.i matter, and that they regretted it ere they reached our shores. The con-
victs, who have succeeded by their daring crimes in spreading consternation
among the honest jwrtion of the community, will be cxpe'K d from the cimntry
or suspended between heaven and earth in duo time, wlirii urdcr will again
reign in California. In place of those wlio return others wiil emigrate fnmi
tlie older states who will take advantage of the opening tints mr.de fir new
enterprise and new men. These men will reap the brnetits which would have
fallen to the older settlers who leave the country. While all this is going on,
(.'alifornia will rise as rapidly in the path of her destiny as though nothing
had taken ])laco within her borders. In less than five years this young sister
of our confederacy of lepubHcs \. ill lival any litate in the Union in moat of
the elements of greatness and prot^peiity.''

Ill the Asmoncau of tlio lath of Aujjfust is written:

" The most prominent feature of the California news is the firm establish-
ment of the supreme authority of Judge Lynch. Wc who are bitter oppo-
nents of capital punishment in ci\ili/.ed communities deeply lament this
terrible state of affairs, lint consideiing that California is overrun not only
by the convicts of IJotany Iky and Norfolk Island, but by the most desperate
and lawless villains from every nation under the luu, cuiuiot but admit that

4IG

BEFORE THE WORLD.

the summary oxocution of the jtnlgments of the Vigilance rommittec are
absolutely necessary for the maintenance of the supremacy of tlic rights of
life anil property. Society in California, disorganized by this vast accession
of marauck'i's of eveiy typo and grade, liecomes resolved into its first
elements, whuu association or combination of the well disposed to repress
by stern, terrilic, and rapid punishment the nets of the wrong-doer is not
oidy jnstillable but praiseworthy, and tho men de8er^^^g of commendation
who stand in tho giqi to brave tho senseless odium cast upon them by those
wlio cannot (;• will not see the abyss into wliich the comnumity is plunged
by the folly jind imbecilitj* of the administration of the law, or the laxity
of the police regulations. It would be violent, miscliievous, nay infamous
conduct, to assetiiblo rn iinixxe in the state of New York and override the
civic and state authorities, to iipprehend, try, and punisli criminals ere tlio
sun had set on the day on which the otience had been committed, for New
York has all tho appliances of an eiiicicnt force to jjrotect her citizen.'* ;
California ha.s nothing ajiproaching the same. She has named her authorities,
but tliey have yet to gather the lirmness ncees.sary to make her laws elBcicnt
and resjH'cted. 1'Iie jiosition of affairs is to be deplored, not to )»c won-
dered at. There are hosts of men there who would not willingly hurt a
wonn ; but when the incendiary and the murderer openly contemn the right.s
of property and the value of life, their knowledge of the duties they owe to
thouKselves, tlieir families, and to the moral dignity of the great Union of
which they are .a portion, compel them to stand forth in tiie breach, and
declare in the name of religion and law that by tho unrelenting hand of
justice they will vindicate tho outrages of the outlaw."

Says the Now York Eji'2)rcss of tlio lOtli of Oc-
toboi" :

"The details of the later iutclligcnco we publitih this morning from Cali-
fornia arc of a character not very pleasing, certainly, to contemplate. The
Vigilance Committee in San Francisco have again had occasion to demon-
strate to the woi'ld tiiat tiiough California lias on her statute-books laws as
salutary and stringent as the oldest and best governed states in tliis Union,
she li!w nobody with moral courage? or honesty enough to have them executed.
The Coniinittee does its M-ork of deatli witli a systematic celerity which
shows how excellent an executioner it is become fnmi long pr;', ' !ce. We iiad
indulged the hope that, for the credit not of California alone, but of our com-
mon country, those terrible scenes in S.icraniento and San Francisco would
not be rei'iiacteil. 1'iie news in our columns thi.^ morning t^hows how .sadly
wc are disappointed. The victims appear from their own statements tn
have been miscreants of the most abandoiiccl ciiaracter. pardoned convicts
from llotany ]5ay, who had served a long apprenticeship to crime before
cuteriug upon their career in California. "

Tho BuflUlo £jcp)r^s oifors the following pertinent
remarks :

"Lynch law upon the s'lorcs of the Pacific we take to be nothing more or

BUFFALO SPEAKS.

417

less than the expression of an earnest demand for prompt, certain, and eflfective
justice upon wrong-doers. It pierces tlirough the liindrances, uncertainties,
and weaknesses of the British common law, and comes rigltt to its point, in-
exomhle as logic, and prompt to a finish. What need of alarm at tlie sight?
At tlie worst, an unconstitutcd authority deposes the constituted authorities,
and taking cognizance of offences against the laws, punislics them in a fashion
not provided for in the criminal code. But when it is Iwrnc in mind that the
act is done by the represcnfaitives of the entire society ; that this new and
summary justice is executed by those who make laws, and who appoint the
executors of laws ; tliat it emanates from a power that is behind tlie law and
above the law, as tlio creator is above the creature, from a power that is the
Hource of civil justice at the same time that it is the life of the state and the
stfite itself, we may dismiss all apprehension for the result. California will
be purer and stronger for its suspension of the constituted fonns of criminal
justice by the cotle of Lynch. But we have somewhat to do with the action
of our goUlen-locked young sister upon the Pacific waters. From tiie vigorous,
8ensil)le, active state of California comes to the older states a hint and a. sug-
gestion that they would do well to Iioed. She demands a system of summary
justice upon evil-doers. That is the upsliot and final result of her lynch law,
that is all tiierc is of it. She proclaims lierself tired to death of the uncurtain,
tedious, and inefficient processes of British law to punish and prevent crimes
against civil society. Rising superior to the whining nonsense of a philosophy
that discovers only misfortune in crime, and finds in every villain a brother,
slie with good sharp sense says that the incendiary and robber are unfit to
live, tluit they are ♦■'le swoi'n foes of a good society, and that she will have
notiiing whatever to do with them except to ascertain their true character
beyond a doubt, and then to string them up to the nearest tree. The rca.sons
which impel lier to this determination are conclusive. She cannot avoid them,
for arson and robbery defeat the whole object of life in California. That life
is transient. Its objects are as a general thing temporary. Tliey must be
speedily accomplished. The citizens of tluxt state mostly go there to get gold,
designing not to remain there, but to return to their liomes in the east as soon
as tliey shall have gotwliat tliey want. Tliisasa general thing is their single
business. Now to a man who has gone ten tiiousand miles away from his wife
and his children on tliis eager and feverisii errand, and who lias submitted to
cold, hunger, weariness, and sickness to accomplish it, what is the essence of
the ofTence of roblx;ry? What to him is tiie l»n>ad-l)acked lusty rufiian from
l>i)tiiny liay who comes upon the sleeping miner in the dark to snatch away
the fruits of his labor and the reward of his suflPerings? An unenilur;il)le
nuisance, as unendurable as fatal poisons, as nntiimabU^ beasts, sometliinu' to
lie gi)t rid of and alxilislied iustantly. The cmignints to California do not go
tiuTc to establish society, and perfect civil and social cliuracter. They go tiicre
to get gold. They have no time to spend in theories of punishuieiit, none uikhi
pri.son discipline: just as little time have they to wait up<m tlie crawling prog-
ress of justice pursuing the criminal through a court of common law. Were
tlu' quarter sessions of New York established upon the Yuba, with its ailjoum-
ineiits on account of the heat, adjournments to let a lawyer get over a head-

lu he, adjournments upon all sorts of lying allidavits introduced to cheat justice
I'oi'. Tbib. Vol. I. 27

416

BEFORE THE WORI.D.

anil to screen scoundrels, we should consider its judgeship a very unsafe berth,
and should tremble for the gentlemen wlio practised at its bar. What a nuisance
the court would be, and how near to the truth would be the public judgment
that the lawyers who conducted defences there upon the New York city model
W'jt'c the aiders and abettors uf rasuils, hinderers of right aud aggnivators of
evil. The people of California are in an intense hurry; their wcjiltli is in the
most condensed and portable form. A robber carrying off in his liand.s tlie
spoils of five minutes' work iMjars away a fortune for most men, and instantly
l)c;^gar3 his victim. The case is extraordinary all around ; it calls for extraoi'-
dinary remedies, and it gets them. These, too, are efficacious. A thousandfoll
Ijcttur for the best men of the country to band together justly but inexorably
for the suppression of crime, to do it forthwith, spontaneously as it were, thiiu
to threaten a modification of the laws at the next session of the legislature ami
to stimulate a district attorney to an uncommon shedding of ink. The
felons from Sydney and the outlaws of the Mississippi Valley would gorge
themselves with gold while dilettanti and fonnalists were drafting acts to
make felonies capital ofTences, and were checking off upon the almanac the
laggard days that separated them from their next legislature. Our condition
at the east is not that of California. Our society is measurably settled ; we
are not in a hurry ; we have time to reflect and time to act. lint it behooves
us to think if we cannot with great profit infuse into our presejit criminal
processes a portion of California energy and California certainty ; to see if we
cannot with very great advantage incorporate into our theory of punish-
ment a portion of the California maxim, that a healthy, well fed, vigorous
criminal is without excuse ; that to let a lawyer shelter him under the plea of
lunacy, or on the ground of an omission to dot some legal i or cross some
common-law t, is on the jmrt of the public a very costly stupidity, to see if our
recent mawkish sympathy with lusty wrong-doers has not engendered crime,
and hurt the sense of right and wrong throughout our entire society."

The solid men of Boston, of whom there wore many
in the Committee, found their action in the main fully
sustained by their home journals. For instance, the
Boston Joii7'nal remarks:

"To us, residing in the most perfect security under the operation of goidl
laws, faithfully administered, such proceedings seem violent and perhaps un-
justifiable. We cannot bring ourselves to believe that lynch law is necessary
under any circumst<»nces in a community where the people live under a code
of laws of their own framing, administered by officers who are responsi))lt' tu
public opinion for their acts. But we are free to say that if ever the occasion
justified the application of lynch law, the recent affair in Saii Francisco is
justifiable. Such is the condition of society in C-alifomia that there is no
security for life or property in the regular operation of the laws. Vciinlity
and bribery have crept into the administration of justice and shaken all con-
fidence in the majesty of the laws. Under these circumstances who M-ill un-
hesitatingly assert that a scene so terrible as that enacted iu Portsmouth
Square will not c.xcrt a salutary inllueuce?"

DIVERS OPINIONS.

410

And thus the Olive Branch:

"Taking into consideration that forty or fifty persons were burned to
death, and seven millions of dollars' worth of property was lost by the late
incendiary fire, that attompta have been made a dozen times since to fire the
city, that citizens are attacked with slung-shots in their very stores, in the
face of day, it is not surprising that respectable citizens and property-holders
sliould do something to protect themselves from these gangs of organized rob-
bers and banditti."

The Troy Post says :

"The news from CaMlom.\a.\iy ih& Brother Jonathan presents a frightful
picture of the state of society in that golden state. Judge Lynch, at the last
accounts, excrcisetl supreme sway in all departments of the government ; and
wlicn we look at the rampant and reckless attitude of the perpetrators of
arson, robbery, and other crimes, we are almost forced to acknowledge that
the sway of the judge is needed to make head against the surging flood of
villainy that threatens almost to annex the new state to the infernal regions. "

The Xliehmoud Enquire}' remarks:

"The most prominent event in the California papers is the execution of a
rolibcr by a committee of vigilance, which has caused very great excitement,
as the verdict of the coroner's jury which sat upon the body was considered
t<j reflect invidiously upon the conduct of this committee."

Says the editor of the New York Sun:

"We deeply regret the occurrence of a case of lynch law in the city of
San Francisco. At this distance from the scene wc can form no proper idea
(if the feelings excited on the part of the citizens of San Francisco by tlie
high liand with which the depraved and dissolute outraged life and property.
While we cannot approve the fearful act we would not say tliat it was done
without strong provoking causes. We had thought that the recent elections
would secure to San Francisco a more prompt and efficient administration of
tlic laws, but it would seem that there has been but sliglit, if any, change for
the better."

The Albany Argus thinks:

"There must be extraordinary laxity in the administration of criminal
justice in San Francisco, and a still more extraordinary degree of depravity
among its population, to require the voluntary organization of sucli bodies as
tlie vigilance committee, with such summary and terrible powers as were
exercised in the case of Jenkins, liotii must have existed in a degree never
Ijefore known in a civilized counuuuity to excuse such means to correct ainiscs
or to punish crime. "

The Boston ^[ail comments as follows:

■'The terrible conflagrations which have destroyed so much pro^ierty and
sevurul valuable lives are believed to be the work uf tlieso during and dcs-

420

BEFORE THE WORLD.

I \

perate men; and when it is known that the laws have proved totally in-
B.iUicient to repress or check these outrages; that robbery, theft, and arson
were on the increase despite all the efforts of the constabulary force, is it
strange that the people of San Francisco should have felt the desperate
necessity of making a demonstration outside of the courts of justice tliat
should carry dismay into the hearts of those who were preying upon society
and setting the statute laws at defiance? The people of Vicksburgh several
yjars since thought they saw a similar necessity in the violent extirpation
of gamblers ; and although their action in the matter brought down upon
them the most violent denunciations, it was undoubtedly the salvation of the
town."

The New York Sunday Times thinks :

"The '•xecution of Jenkins was of course a murder in the eye of the
law, and the punishment was moreover disproportioned to the crime; and
yet, taking all the circumstances into consideration, we can scarcely call the
deed xinjustifiable. Where the law is powerless to protect a community, it
must protect itself; but we should be sorry to be one of a conununity so situ-
ated."

The Portland Transcript sides with the Committee :

" This is the first execution which ever took place in San Francisco, where
more crime has been committed in the past year than in any other city of the
same population in the Union, without one single instance of adequate pun-

iahmeut."

The remarks of the Albany Knickerbocker are at
once sensible and true:

"The news from California, though startling, is not unexpected. The
laxity -with which justice is administered on the Pacific has given vice almo.st
a license for its depredations. Where prisons are scarce and villains plenty,
the law, to be beneficial, should be prompt and decisive. The slow fom? and
special pleading which may be tolerated in this and other older states are not
adapted to the wants and safety of such a people as make up the inhabitants
of California. That rascals should be hanged by the populace is to Imj re-
gretted— it is still more so to be regretted, however, that the inaction of the
courts and police render such hanging necessary. Whether Jenkins mils
legally put to deatli is not of so much moment as whether ho was justly put
to <lcath. For over a year San Francisco has been ovemm by bands "f
desperadoes from Sydney and other English penal colonies, villains who have
so reduced the price of life and property that hea<ls and houses in California
are of but little more value than pebbles. Since 1849 San Francisco has bcin
burnt over some four or five times, and each time by incendiaries. Since I. Si 9
over five hundred robberies and twenty murders have been perpetratcil in
that city ; and yet, notwithstanding this frc(juency of crime and outrage, the
first man ever brought to the gallows in San Francisco was the outlaw Jenkins
who wa I executed on the 10th of June. If tlje action of the people is to bo

THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE.

421

regretted, it is only because they did not move earlier. Had Withers, Daniels,
Wiiidred, and Wutkina been promptly tried and t'xecuted when they perpe-
trated their villainies, the necessity for lynching Jenkins would never have
arisen. To delay justice is almost as bad aa to deny it. With such a popu-
lation as we tind in 8an Francisco the tardy and corrupt movements connected
with the good old way of meting out punishment for crime is no more calcu-
lated to bring about a reformation than would the reading of the forty-second
] salm. The action which the people have taken they were forced to take.
ISy no other means could they impress upon the rogues which surround
t)H'ni the wholesome knowledge that vice is a short-lived accomplishment,
and tliat the only way to meet with public toleration is to give up i)uliLio
j)lundcring. The position occupied by the Committee of Safety is not only
a necessary but a bold one. As they have placed themselves in opposition to
tlie courts, their action will probably lead to a collision. We shall await the
next arrival with some anxiety. "

By fur the most candid and correct view of tlio
matter is that of the New York Tribune, which on tho
2Gth of July says:

" The summary proceedings of the San Francisco Conmiittee of Vigilance
in the trial, condemnation, and execution of the thief Jenkins are not to be re-
garded in the light of an ordinary riot, much less aa an example of hostility
to the established laws lieralding disorganization and anarchy. Seen from the
I)roper point of view it is a manifestation, violent, it is true, of that spirit of
order which created tiie state of California; and wLilu ^^'c regret the causes
which induced it, our faith in the integrity of those who perpetrated it is no
wise weakened. There is no denying now that the laws of tiie state in their
present operation are inadequate to protect the lives and property of her citi-
zens. The amount of crime has fearfully increased during the last few months,
and the existence of an organized band of desperadoes, covering a large portion
of the country, has been ascertained. After seeing the fairest part of the city
laid in ashes by the hand of an incendiary, and the escape througli some
(luit)ble of the law of the culprit who attempted to repeat that droadfu' \i6i-
tiition, it is not to be wondered that the merchants of San Fra<>ci.ico sliould
take the administration of justice into their own liands. The names attached
to the declaration of the Committee of V^igilance are those of the most orderly
and influential citizens of the place, men who would not rashly venture on so
liazai'dous a course or lightly assume so awful a responsibility. Sar Francisco,
tiierefore, presents the singular spectacle of a community governed by two
powers, each of which is separate and distinct from the other. 'J"ney cannot
come in conflict, since there is no aggressive movenient against the law on the
part of the Committee and no attempt on the part of the regular authorities
to interfere with the action of the latter. Public opinion universally upholds
tlie course pursued by the Committee. This course, under the circumstances,
cannot be called mob hiw or lynch law in the common acceptation of the tenn.
It more nearly resembles the martial law which prevails duru.g a state of
^ii'gc. It lias been suggested by the presence of a danger 'vhich the ordinary

422

BEFORE THE WORLD.

course (if law aecnied inadequate to meet. Life and property must be protected
ut all iiiizards ; the country is at the mercy of as vile a horde of outcasts as the
8un ever shone upon ; and nothing but the most prompt and relentless justice
will give us security. These are probably the sentiments of nine tenths of the
citizens of California. At this distance we will not venture to judge whether
tile circumstances demand so merciless a code ; but we are sufficiently familiar
with the character of the men comp:)9in<{ the Committee of Vigilance to acquit
tlicm of any other m itive tluiii tliat of maintiining public order and in-
dividual security. We believe they will exercise tlie power tiiey have assumed
no longer than is absolutely necessary to subserve tliose ends, and tliat their
willing submission to the authority of tiie law, when the law shall be competent
to protect them, will add another chapter to the marvellous history of their
state. In spite of these violent exhibitions of jMipulnr sentiment, the instinct
of order, the capacity for aelf-government is manifested more strongly iu
California at this moment than in any part of the world."

And again :

" The California news by the Prometheun has a strange and solemn in-
terest. To those who have traced the history of our first Pacific state througli
all the marvellous piuises of its short existence, the present time assumes tlie
nature of a crisis, in which order and anarchy, violence and secuiity aie
struggling for the masteiy. On the one i\an<l wo have a sickening succession
of murders, robberies, anil incendiary fires ; on tlie other a rapidly increasing
list of trials, condemnations, and executions, pei-petrated with relentliss
severity by the summary action of the people. To those who are unacquainted
witli the difficulties under whicli California has lalwred ever since the adoption
of lier state constitution the latter alternative may appear even more ten-ible
than tlie former; and a course dictatcil in fact by the most awful necessity
which can be imposed upon any community may seem little else than the
lawless outbreak of unbridled popular passion. We have l>een 8oniewh:it
sliarply taken to task by some of our contemporaries for justifying the motives
of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance, and the members of the Com-
mittee themselves have l>een mnde the subject of violent denunciation; yet
every successive arrival from California proves more clearly the justice of
■w hat we first asserted, that the lynch law now in operation is not mob law,
but the result of a universal sentiment of order, a conscientious belief that it
cannot be obtainnd by trusting to the regular authorities, «nd a sense of
<langer which impelled tiiem to immediate action. Wo have professed our
inability to judge at tliis distance whellier otlier means miglit not hav', been
employed to enforce tlie laws, avoiding a course which must be ahvays
hazardous to the future peace of society, even when the sternest exigency
compels it. The disclosures which we pul)lish to-day show clearly the reality
of the dangers to wliicli tlie Californians were exposed ; they show how nearly
hopeless was the reliance to be filaccd on the ordinary operation of law. So
far as the evidence goes they prove at least that there have been sufficient
reasons for the action of the Committee of Vigilance to exonerate them from
the violent charges which have been made against them on this side of the
continent." ,

MANY TEACHERS.

423

Thus speaks the Boston Traveller:

"The fact that San Francisco ia so overrun with lawless and dcsporato
villains is snlHciuntly painful and alarming ; but it ia by no means the most
tilarniing and ])ainful fact connnuuicatcd in the letter. We confess that we
view with the utmost alarm a state of general morals which will allow, much
k'HS sanction, such an organization as that alluded to. It indicates an utter
vitiation ami corruption of the public functionaries of the city, and a general
contempt for the administrators of the law, which is totally inconsistent with
the ideji tiiat anything like u well ordered government exists in the country.
8ure we are that if there is any such thing as law in San Francisco, and if
tliere are men whoHc business it i.s to administer this law, the course adopted
by this 'organization of citizens' must tend most directly to break down this
law and to render powerless these olitcers of justice. If this organization can
be sustained there is in fact an end to civil government. "

And tlius the Now
conchides
niovcnient

a long article

Yorlv Commercial Advertiser
adverse to

the

vigilance

" Had the Committee coufinod themselves to operating upon the niiniatcra
of the law, either by aiding and supporting them if they were willing to en-
force the law, or by bringing such a combined public opinion to l>ear upon
tlioni that they would l>e comixjUed to act promptly and impartially, they
would have done wisely and well ; the cirect would have Iwcn innncdiatc and
purjietual, and the triumph of the great principle of self-government under
the restraints of law would liave been complete. Very ditl'crcnt ia the case
now. However much the Committee may hereafter desire it, tliey cannot heal
the womided honor of the defied law. They cannot at will riiiae its jirostrate
form, and reanimate it with authority and power. Tlie Vigilance Committt'c
may make itself feared, but it will be at an expense of popular respect an<l
homage to the law. Moreover, a counter-vigilance eomniittce Avould be
(jnite as legal as that now existing, and might make itself as terrible. Nor is
it improbable that such an organization will spring up, if every man who
stuals a Iwg of money, in the prenent case recovered by his pursuers, or com-
mits any felony is to be secretly comlennicd to deatli. A vigilance committee
acting with such glaring illegality, and openly avowing it without shame,
limy go to greater lengths of tyranny, thus provoking countcr-organiziitions ;
and where will the cud be? If thiTC is, as cannot bo doubted, necessity in
San Francisco for organization for self-jirotection on the part of the citizens,
let it be done, not in defiance of established law, but under its sanction. Let
respectjible citizens j)rotect themselves and their property by existing law, or
by amending the laws if they need amendment. Any other mode of protec-
tion must result in anarchy and ruin."

In reply to the Advertiser, the San Francisco Herald

424

BEFORE THE WORLD.

comes out in ono of the most able editorials found in
any journal ui)on this question :

\i :

"Among tlu' newspaper of New York sonip nre constantly progressive,
Bonic moderately conaerviitive, and others po8sess«!d with a morbid conviction
that unless t'lry act .ij tlrags upon the onward movement of reform the
wheels of society will go oft" tho trjick and general desolation ho tho melan-
choly consecpience. The hiiidmoHt of these is fliu Coinmeiriul Aihriiixer, u,
very respcctahlc paper in its way, but never holding an opinion that anyl>ody
else holds, and fifty years behind the age, at least. If it can be regardcu as
the represcntiitive of any class, it is of those who hoM virtue to consist in
not picking iiookets or otiierwiso rendering tiiemselves amenable to the hiw,
who regaril nioney-lwgs as a divinity to bo worshipped with their whole souls,
and who worship them accordingly, with sanctimonious and gmvc propriety,
at eleven o'clock every Sunday in the gilded and cushioned pews of Trinity
or Ciracc. That sucli «i i.;per should comprehend the dilliculties, theniccs-
sitics, the bitter experiences, of San Francisco is not of courec to be expected;
but tho jieople of this city had a right to anticipate that it would content
itself with expressing that opinion whicli was consonant with its anti(juated,
dull, and soujewhat perverted instincts, without descending to absolute mis-
representation in regard to the scenes which took place in this city after tlio
execution of tho man Jenkins. Touching tho acts of tho Vigilance Commit-
tee, the object of their organization, the extinordinary system of police
which under their auspices sprung into existence with most magical celerity
all over the land, the wonderful completeness with which they have carried
into execution evei-ything they attempted from the Iteginning, the inierring
certainty with which they jjounced ujx)n the worst characters in tho comuni-
nity, without over making a single mistake in regard to those whom tlu y
arrested and punished, their pnidenco and moderation in avoiding all flithculty
or conflict with tho oflTicers of the law, and the triumphant success of their
eflbrts to suppress crime in this city, we have already spoken many times.
Their whole acts may l)e summed up in this, that c.fter a fair trial, and on fidl
evidence of guilt, they exterminated four men whose hands were stained
with many and tenible crimes, and who had maintained an incessant war
upon society in California ; and further, that they have driven back whence
they came several others, convicts from the liritish colonics, who also warred
upon the community, but whose criminality was not so grave or so apparent
as to deserve death. No iimocent man has sullercd death or exile at their
hands, and the persons whom they have punished would have sulFcred ecpially
had not the cotirts been inetiicient or the laws powerless. So much, briefly,
for tho result of the Committee's labors. Tho Commercial, after stigmatizing
as demoralizing, dohunianiziug, and otherwise objectionable, the execution of
Jenkins, traces to the agency of the Vigilance Committee the rush of the
crowd at the city hall to lynch Lewis for arson, and the scenes enacted in tho
tumultuary assemblages on thi; plaza on the two days subseijuent to the first
execution. In neither of these proceedings did the Committee interfere in
any manner. Several of the mcnibers were present at the city hall duiiug

ANOTHER ANSWTIR.

438

tlir fxcitomcnt about Lewis, but quite as many were opposed to the «i>int of
violence nianifc-sted on that oeuaHion as in its favctr. Tiio Coniniittee diil not
jiarticipate in tlio attempt, nor ditl they eontributo to the excitement. A;,'ain,
in the meetings hehl on tii'j ))lu2it tJio Conmiitteo took no part. Tlioso a.sseni-
blages were witiiout aim ui object, and anything that tiMjk place miglit witli
aa much propriety be attributed to the ('o;M/«frfia^ itself as to tlio Vigilanco
('(iininittcc. Nor can we, and we regret tf) say it, refrain I'rom believing that
till' charge of instrumentality on the part of the Connnittee in these rows, if
we may so cull them, has been nuidu by that journal with malice ; fur in nu
California paper can wo find aught tending to identify the Committee witii
tlicsc acts. The simple circumstjinue that Mr Uranuan, a mcnd>ei' of tho
body, was called upon to address the crowd is too frivolous as testimony ou
wliicii to ground such a charge for a journal so serious in its character as the
(.'ommcrckd. ]Jut is not this holy horror at a crowd assembled in .San l'"ran-
ci.sco through a wish to see justice dealt to a i)ei'son deemed guilty of an ut-
ti'nii)t to fire the city, after two tliirds of it had been ulreiwly consumed,
tigcthcr with twenty or more valuable live.-t, is not this holy horror f<in»'v'iat
plmri^jaical?

•' 'Tho flesh will qulvrr when iXio pincf rii tp»r—
The blood will follow where tho Iiutre li drivi'D.'

"And will not people complain and act when driven to tho verge of despair,
anil heart-sick from the loss of property, and home, and fi-iends, and oven of
all prospect of recuperation? We recollect being in New "i'ork some years
av;u, when on a certain Saturday night a young man named John C. Colt sat
in the dock of the criminal coui-t awaiting the decision of the jury, who had
retired to an adjoining room to consult whetler he should live or die.
'i'lirouj.'h the open windows came the roar of an excited multitude, whoao
luud and menacing voices penetrated even the jury-room, demiinding tho
blood of ..ho accused. That crowd was composed of men and women, and
till four o'clock on Sunday morning that hoarse cry still went u]) demanding
blood. This happened in New York, where the Commercial has been estab-
lished wc know !iot how many years, and where tiiey have their tJrace
Church and Trinity Church, their pews, preachers, and polict^ their courts,
ofTiccrs, and laws, on the most approved system a lengthened experience has
been able to shape. We do not remember that the circumstance called forth
from that journal any unusual expression of displea.sure ; but there is no
measure to its indignation when a crowd of some few hun<lred persons in
San Francisco make a hanuless.demonstration of anger and exoitcnient against
a man who, if guilty, was tenfold moi-e criminal than Colt. We rejoice that
s ) few of the Atlantic papers have followed the example of the ('oiHiiicrciaL
Some three or four indeed, through spleen or stupidity, seize the occasion to
read us a lecture on our lawlessness, forgetting or ignoring the fact that wo
have been lawless, that is without the benefit of law, since we lirst arrived.
It is most gratifying to perceive, however, that a largo majority of tho
j'uirnals in tho states take a liberal and enlightened view of our ditiiculties,
and exhibit a candid appreciation of the stem necessity that impelled our
citizens to uphold the laws by enforcing their execution. "

42G

BEFORE THE WORLD.

ii'

While certain journals were thus raising a great
outcry against the conduct of the people of California
in carrying into execution measures for the protection
of life and property, within fifty miles of New York's
capital were acted scenes dastardly beside the wildest
lawlessness in California. Says one:

"The anti-rcnter8 in this state are getting troublesome again. A few
night* since a number of them, disguised as Indians, surrounded the house of
a man named Shaw, who had scn-ed process on one of them under direction
of the sheriff of Rensselaer county. They took him out of bed, carried him
a distance of a mile, and then tuiTed and feathered him. One would ha^■e sup-
posed that his age, seventy years, would liave saved him from such indignity,
but it did not. Governor Hunt offers a reward of $500 to any of the partici-
pants in the outrage, to the nmnber of five, who will inform on the others. "

Commenting on the above, the New York Mirror
remarks:

" The Aha California, which has been compelled to follow the example of
the Mirror and come out double occasionally, contains full particulars of the
lawless state of society in San Francisco, and, we regret to sec, vindicates the
resort to mob law. We took up our pen to combat the fallacies of the editoi' ;
but then wc tliought of the anti-rent outrages in our own state, and concluded
to drop the subject. It is not two weeks since an old man of seventy was
mobbed in attempting to serve a process in the state of New York, and Gov-
ernor Hunt has not called out the police or the military to arrest the rebels !"

Even in staid communities it is impossible always
to crush immutable truth and justice beneath dead
forms of law, — instance a case tried about this tiino
which occurred at the Old Bailey in London, Lord
Chief Justice Tindal presiding:

George Hammond, a j)ortrait painter, was placed
at the bar, to be tried on an indictment found against
him by the grand jury for the wilful murder, with
malice aforethought, of George BaUlwin,a rope-dancir
and mountebank. The prisoner was a man of middlo
height but slender form; his eyes were blue and mild.
His whole being gave evidence of subdued sadness
and melancholy resignation. He was forty-one yeaiN
of age; he had a soft voice, and liis manner and
ai^pearanco bore testimony of his being a man of

A FATHER'S STORY.

427

feeling and refinement in spite of the poverty of his
dress. On being called on to plead, the prisoner
n(hnitted that he did kill Baldwin, and he dej)lored
tlie act, adding, however, on his soul and conscience
he did not believe himself to be guilty. Thereupon a
jury was impanelled to try the prisoner. The indict-
ment was then read to the jury, and, the act of killin'j^
being admitted, the government rested their case aiul
the prisoner was called upon for his defence. The
])risoner then addressed himself to the court and jury:
"My lord," said he, "my justitication is to be found
in a recital of the facts. Three years ago I lost a
daughter, then four years of ago, the sole memorial of
a l)eloved wife, whom it pleased God to recall to him-
self. I lost my child; but I did not sec her die. She
was an angel, and beside her I had nobody in the
world to love. Gentlemen, what I have suffered
cannot be described; you cannot comprehend it. I
expended in advertising and fruitless search every-
thing I possessed, furniture, pictures, and even my
clothes. All have been sold. For three years, on
i'oot, I have souglit my child in all the cities ami
all the villages of the three kingdoms. As soon
as by painting portraits I had succeeded in gain-
ing a little money, I returned to recommence my
advertisements in the newspapers. At length on
Friday, the 14th of Aj)ril last, I crossed the Sniith-
iield cattle market. In tlie centre of the market a
troupe of mountel)aid<s were performing their feats.
Amou'jf them a child was turnin<jf on its head, its
logs in the air, and its head su])p()rted by a halbert.
A ray from the soul of its mother must have pen-
etrated my own for me to have recognized my child
in that condition. It was, indexed, my [)oor chill.
Her mother would have clasped Iier to her heart had
she IxHMi there. As for me, a veil passeil over my eyes.
I threw myself upon the chief of the rope-dancers. I
knew not how it was; I, habitually gentle, even to
v/eakncss, seized him by the clothes; I raised hiiu in

423

BEFORE THE WORLD.

I y

'/■

the air and dashed him to the ground. Then again.
He was dead. Afterward I repeated what I had
done. At that moment I regretted that I was only
aWe to kill but one."

" These are not Christian sentiments," replied the
chief justice; "how can you expect the court and
jury to look with favor on your defence, or God to
pardon you, if you cannot forgive ?"

"I know, my lord," continued the prisoner, "what
will be your judgment and that of the jury; but God
has already jiardonod me; I foul it in my heart. You
know not, I knew not then, the full extent of the evil
that man had done. When some compassionate people
brought me my daughter in )ny prison she was no
longer my child; she was no longer pure and angelic
as formerly; she was corrupted, body and soul; her
maimer, her language, infamous like those of the
jicople with whom she had been living. She did not
recognize me, and I no longer recognized her myself
Do you comprehend me now? That man had robbed
me of tlie love and soul of my child; and I have
killed him but once."

The foreman now spoke: "My lord, we have agreed
on our verdict."

" I understand you, gentlemen," answered the chief
justice, "but the law nmst take its course; I must
sum uj) the case, and tlien you will retire to deliber-
ate." The chief justice having summed up the case,
the jury retired, and in an instant after returned into
the (X)urt with a verdict of " Not guilty."

On the discharge of Hanunond the sheriff was
obliged to surroun«l him with an escort. The crowd
of women and men was inunensc;. The women were
determined to carry him off in triumph. The crowd
followed him all the way to his lodgings, with deafen-
ing shouts and huzzas.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

EXTENSION OF THE VIGILANCE PRINCIPLE.

In my mind, he was guilty of no error, lie was chargeable with no ex-
aggei'ation, ho was Ixitraycil by his fancy into no nictuphur, who once said,
that all we see alwut us, kings, lords, and commons, the whole machinery of
the state, all the apparatus of the system and its varied woikiugs, end in
simply bringing twelve good men into a box.

Lord Browjham.

Plato, in his Republic, defines justice as "the inter-
est of the stronger;" .and however much of sophistry
hes hidden in the sentiment, we find practically that
it is very near the truth. Tlie stroni^er will have
their way, and if their way be not right or just, they
will not long be the stronger. As a matter of course,
by the stronger is meant not that element of the
nation which may be momentarily uf>}>erniost, or
which may happen to have another element at a dis-
advantage,but the iidierent and permanent dominating
strength that underlies all the vital activities of a
people.

In American politics we see strikingly illustrated
this self-regulating principh;. Corruption is insepa-
rable from our form of ijfovernnjent. The svstem of
short terms and rotation in office offers a standing
iH'ward for neglect and peculation. Political parties
arc essential to this system, not from the principles
jKlvocated, for the principles of either are good enough
if well carried out, and there is little to choose betweiii
them, but from the necessity of keeping tlie pool
stilled in order to ]>revent stagna^itMi. The |)artv in
power nuist be driven out, or the certain corruption
soon becomes unendurable; and so in this tread-mill,

1*^1

4S0

EXTENSION OF THE VIGILANCE PRINCirLE.

fafihion, wu must go on irom one election to another,
with a reform party ever at the heels of the party in
office, the paramount object of the one to come within
ivaeli of power, and of tlie other to make the most of
oi)p()rtunity. But neither in parties nor pohtics hes
the strength of the commonwealth. If it were so,
(iod pity us! There the interest of the stronger has
nothing to do with justice. It is the people, not the
politicians, in whose interests lies justice; it is the
people, not the politicians, in whom lies the nations
strength.

Our government is weak because the people are
strong. But because a weak government is the kind
that suits us best does not necessarily imply that we
are best ruled Ijy weak men, even though we seldom
choose others. Because a monarchy is the strongest
of governments, and an aristocracy the wisest, does
not imply that we should change our republican form
for another. To do so would be retrograde; yet we
might safely enough give up part of our ignorance
antl weakness. The maxim that the king can do no
^vrong has in our day become literally true, for now
the sovereign can do nothing except that which his
ministers and parliament permit him to do. Inherent
in pow(!r is decay. And unless the government is
constantly refreshed by a cleansing stream flowing in
from the people, it soon becomes rotten. Therefore
reform the units of society if you would reform society.
Wickedness in rulers is the correlative of wickedness
in the people.

Couipare the laws of evolution as applied to gov-
ernment with the behavior of the mixed popu-
lation of California when left without government,
and we find the two in perfect accord. Society as a
whole cannot act or even exist except through the
agency of some sort of iniluence enforcing obedience.
There are two kinds of laws which underlie society,
natural law and artificial law ; one arises from neces-
sities common to all mankind, and the other waits on

SOCIETY AND LAW.

431

011

fashion. The social state evolved from the domestic
state implies property, marital relations, laws, and
general government.

As among ]>rimitive peoples, so among the California
miners, we see a state without laws, aggregations of
men without government, each absolutely free, free in
thought and action, so far as he himself is concerned ;
but let him beware how he touches another. Never
did danger so attend wrong-doing: "I caught this
fellow stealing my nmles, antl I shot him," was found
written on paper pinned to the breast of a dead body
lying by the roadside in 1853.

In the absence of written law speechless sentiment
becomes a power keener, stronger, and more merciless
than any of which man stands in awe. The laws of
God and the laws of man combined are puny in their
efforts at curbing the passions of wilful man as com-
pared with the opinion of his neighbor. Give a man
the sympathy of the community in which he lives,
and the law cannot hurt him; and, on the other hand,
let him be anathema of his fellows, and no law can
save him from their ven<j:eance.

Keenly alive and jealously sensitive are the rights
of individuals and of aijjjreijations of individuals when
intrusted to their own keeping. Every man has a
watch on every other man. In the absence of legal
and judicial professionals, or later, in tliei!- inanity,
every member of the community was sheriiF, judgv,
and executioner.

Hence it was these miners walked eircunispectly
among themselves, each coveting the good o[)iui()n of
his neiglibor, each at once servajit and master of all.
To this end they purifie;! their own motives while
purging their camp of crime. And to do right, one
must feel riixht. Ivicjht feeling bejjfets rI<T:ht action.
1 he man is surely an adept who can be one thnig and
throughout his life act another, who can wholly sub-
s(!rve emotion to cognition, and cognition to reason.
Laws will not frighten men into right doing; rewards

432

EXTENSION OF THE VIGILANCE PRINCIPLE.

will not entice them. A society perfect in thought
and feeling needs no laws for its regulation.

Furthermore, as in primitive communities despotism,
feudal, oligarchical, or monarchical, for a time holds
rule, showing the necessity of placing under restraint
progressive man, so here we find a despotism of de-
mocracy. In the absence of visible forms of law there
was the essence of law everywhere; just as in the
progress of civilization wlien men arise and throw off
superstition and despotism they only rivet the chains
of social tyranny the tighter.

Therefore we may conclude that, properly regarded,
all the mad pranks of these miners, all the social ab-
normities that obtained along the Sierra Foothills
<luring the gold-gathering epoch, may be safely re-
ferred to sociological principles; just as all natural
plienomena as soon as understood are found to be
governed by fixed laws, when if not understood they
are regarded as the results of supernatural causes.
Men pray for rain because the laws of storms are ill
defineil ; they will not pray that a stone may be turned
into bread, because they know that bread is not a
geological formation. So the laws which govern
social development, when understood, will be found
in no wise to run counter to the free-will of man, if
man has free-will.

Durinir the (lush times of California there were
several j)hases of crime in the several parts of the
country. In the cities were slung-shot strikers, house-
breakers, wharf-rats who preyed U|)on sailors and
shipping, j)ick-pockets, sneak-thieves, safe-robbers,
gentlemen forgers, and first-class burglars. In the
country there was more killing, that being the more
eftectuul way of arresting pursuit; and as the penalty
for stealing was the gibbet, no severer punishment
could befall the nuirderer. Highwaymen at intervals
infested tlie interior, and their organizations at times
assumed magnificent proportions. Horse-thieves were
thick in stocli localities. Miners were murdered for

SEABOARD AND INTERIOR.

483

their money; a dead body beside a solitary claim was
not an unusual sight ; and often the thief was hanj^ed
while the murderer escaped. Then there was a large
migratory class, who when one place became too hot
went to another.

^als

\erc
for

Following the example of San Francisco, popular
tribunals were organized in every town of any impor-
tance throughout the state, and, as they became
inhabited, in ncijjhborinjj states. These were of everv
grade, and of every degree of efficiency. In the larger
cities, such as Sacramento, Stockton, Marysville,
Sonora, San Josd, and Los Angeles, were standing
associations of the best citizens, which, though neces-
sarily less in numbers, were wellnigh as complex in
thoir organization, and fully as effective in their action,
as the great committee of the commercial metropolis.

Indeed, these country committees, as a rule, had
work enough to do. Though they were spared much
of that kind of work incident to a seaport town, and
to the prominence of the first and largest organization,
yet in certain directions the labors of some of them
exceeded those of the San Francisco Committee.
There were fewer cases of exile in the country, but
more executions. For every criminal execution by
the Vigilance Committee of San Francisco there were
at least twenty executions by the country commit-
tees— that is, including all of them in operation
throughout the state. In one year, that of 1 855, there
were no less than forty-seven arl)itrary executions in
California; and of these, twenty- four were for theft,
and nineteen for murder; the other four being for
minor offences.

Thus in the larger interior cities the committees of
vigilance ranked but little lower than the connnittee
of San Francisco. Descending the scale, we have
next those beloni^intx to towns next in size antl noces-
sitv, which did not keep up permanent organization,
regular meetings, and active work, but which would

Por. Tkid., Vol.. I.

I,:

484

EXTENSION OF THE VIGILANCE PRINCIPLE.

as occasion required come together, organize or reor-
ganize, and, after performing the business which called
them together, disband. These impromptu organiza-
tions were usually for the purpose of trying some crim-
inal caught before the organization was effected. Then
there were many still less formal, until mobocracy in
its simplest and most repugnant form was reached.

In the organization of these various country com-
mittees there was no concerted action, no general
appeal other than the publication of the following
notice in the journals of the 10th to the 15th of
June, at the time of the first organization of the
Committee of 1851:

"To THE Citizens of California:

"Should the order-loving portion of the citizens of Sacramento City,
Stockton, the Pueblo de San Josi5, Monterey, Marysville, and all other towns
and cities of the state, find it necessary, they are invited to form themselves
into committees of vigilance, for the pui-poses set forth in the constitution of
the Committee of V'.,i!anco of San Francisco. The object of these conmiittecs
is, moreover, for the purpose of corresponding with each other, so as to be able
to mark and notice the n )vements of all disorderly or suspicious characters.
By vigilance we may succeed in driving from our midst those who have be-
come so baneful and obnoxious to our communities."

Thereupon the course of the citizens of San Fran-
cisco was endorsed by mass meetings held in Sacra-
mento, Stockton, and elsewhere.

In view of these facts; in view of their existence,
their universality, and their spontaneity, it seems
almost an insult to reason to argue their necessity or
their righteousness. And yet there are those learned
in the law who will tell you to-day that the thing
was unnecessary, the principle wrong, and the mem-
bers of these associations murderers. Stranoe that
men fresh from the firesides of their boyhood, fresh
from the hallowed influences of home and the re-
straints of sober society, should so invariably and
unnecessarily demean themselves as to band as la^^ -
breakers and murderers the moment they arrived at
any point on the western slope of the continent!

GOVERNMENT IN EARLY TIMES.

485

As at San Francisco, so it was with these country
committees of vigilance. Swift and merciless was
their action ; the most notorious villains were quickly
judged and hanged, the lesser ones frightened away;
and then, after having used with skill and modera-
tion, and for the public good, the moral power which
they had seized, they as promptly laid it down, gave
California to the appointed authorities, and became at
once and forever themselves the strictest observers of
the law.

At various times during the epoch of 1851 and
that of 1856 the question arose whether it was ex-
jicdicnt to form of all the committees of the state
Olio grand organization, with the San Francisco Coni-
uiittee as the trunk and the interior committee.; as
the branches. Applications were frequently made by
country committees to become a part of the Sau
Francisco organization; meetings were held, and the
subject at various times discussed.

But with their usual wisdom and discretion tlio
San Francisco Committee declined all such combina-
tions. While willing to act in perfect accord with
all associations for the punishment and prevention of
crime throughout the state, while earnestly desirous
of giving and receiving every facility for the accom-
|)lisiiment of the purpose which called them into ex-
istence, the San Francisco Committee were unwilling
to assume any responsibility wlii-ch could not at any
time be controlled within the walls of their own
council-chamber. A general organization might have
led to the wildest excesses In the more remote quarters
and have made the central or parent committee re-
sponsible for deeds from the commission of which they
would have shrunk with horror.

At an early day, long before the general uprising of
1851, in certain sections of the gold-fields the miners,
more particularly the English-speaking class, and
sometimes only citizens of the United States, met and
adopted rules by which to be governed. These rules

436

EXTENSION OF TIIK VIGILANCE PRINCIPLE.

{Tfovtirnod thu title to mining elaim.s, and protection to
life and i)io[)erty.

At the miners' meeting called for the purpose, an
alcalde, or justice of the peace, and a constable were
chosen, and an official oath administered by the chair-
man of the meeting. In civil actions before these
courts the ijlaintiff or defendant could, either of them,
call for six jurors to assist the juilge, and in criminal
cases the accused was entitled to a jury of twelve
men. Process was issued l)y the alcalde aiul executed
by the constable, or, as he was as frequently called, the
sheriff. All proceedings conformed as nearly as miglit
be to those of an ordinary court. Appeals could be
made from this court in criminal cases only to the
s[)ectators at the time of execution, who were su[)-
posed to represent the people who gave the court its
authority. It was simple, but extremely significant,
this ultimate appeal of the condemrod, the moment
before his execution, to the highest earthly authority —
a most solemn appeal, but too often lightly regarded
by those to whom it was made.

Upon conviction in criminal cases tried Ixifore a
jury the degree of punishment was fixed by the
alcalde, and it might be death, for any offerxce. The
juror's fee was six dollars for the case, and the alcalde's
sixteen dollars. The witnesses and constable were
also duly recompensed.

The miners' court had its origin prior to the ad-
vent of law. Upon the legislative establishment of
courts, in most localities the minors' courts gave place
to tliem, but not always. If the leading spirits of u
mining-camp were satisfied witli their own julicial
machinery they would neither elect under the statutes
noi' |)ermit others to do so. ^liners' courts were not
wholly abrogated till after 18.04. More particulaily
was this the case in criminal trials, wherein the peoj)lc'
were provoked by the tardiness of constitutional courts.

It was sugijested by one that loLml tribunals should
be establisheil in the cities and throughout the country

)

LEGISLATION AND LAW COURTS.

437

whore justice could be instantly dotennincd and exe-
cuted; or extraordinary power uiiglit by special legis-
lation be delegated the courts to act without the usual
law's delay. Thus the chances of escape would bo
lessened ;ind the cost diminished.

About midsummer, 1851, there was considerable
discussion, principally among the law and order
party, concerning the propriety of calling an extra
session of the legislature for the puruoso of so modi-
fying the criminal code as to meet the requirements
of the present social crisis. Such a movement on
the part of the governor would have rendered him
yet more unpopular. Aside from the expense, which
for a ten days' session would have been about sixty
thousand dollars, the result would have been produc-
tive of evil rather than of good. The disease was
altogether beyond the reach of the physician, juid
further legislation would only have intensified the.
trouble. The law was well enough as it was; and
further to complicate affairs by the j)ropagation of
yet more inefficient and corrupt officia s was no way
to cure crime. The people were taking care of them-
selves, and that in the simplest, most direct ind
lionest method in the world — by making punislimciit
to follow closely the heels of crime.

In 1850 statutes were enacted, and the pc(>[)lo
meanwhile administered justice by popular tribunals,
or surrendered their claim to the execution of justice
into the hands of the legally constituted tribunals.
Now, thought they, we shall liave quiet living; we
may now pursue our several vocations in safety with-
out the harassment of hunting and hanging criminals.
Hut the people in their brighter prospect were not
alone made happy. Tiie thief, the election trickster,
tlic murderer, these too rejoiced over a pros})eetive
reign of law, over an administration of pretended
justice which should shield them from their mortal
enemies, the people.

Following the great uprisings in San Francisco,

438

EXTENSION OF THE VIGILANCE PBINCIPLE.

there was a general exodus of criminals to the in-
terior. A San Francisco paper thus sounds the note
of warning:

' ' Tho recent hanging and banishing of the friends and companions of these
villains in Sati Francisco caused a stampede for the interior and southern
portion of the state, where they formed themselves into organized banditti,
robbing and murdering indiscriminately. Neither sex nor age wore regarded
by tlaso desperate gangs of maniuders. Patience at last ceased to bo a virtue ;
the l;i\v was found to bo inefficient to punisli tho bloody outrages which were
«lnily being committed ; tho people in the lower counties, in Los .tVngeles,
!Montoioy, San Luis Obispo, nnd later still in Carson Valley, have liceu oblige<l
in Bplf-dcfence to follow the example of San Francisco and mete out a sum-
mary hut just punishment to all that fell into their liands.

' ' The result of such summary execution is that the desperadoes have
concluded that California has l)ccomo too warm for them, and they have de-
tennincd to shift their quarters to the new gold regions north, where the
people arc not so united. In that comparatively unkuowji country tiiey ex-
pect to have more facilities for carrying on their unlioly business, and where
theru will be less chance of detection. -Vs there will bo no chance of these men
bciuy 8upiH)rted by political plunder iu the country to which they have now
gone, the more deaperato anil dangerous will they bcicomc. Their organiza-
tion, it is now proved without a iloubt, is complete throughout tho coast;
they have theii- secret signs, passwords, and grips, by which they are recou-
iiizcd. Their threats against the members of and sympathizers witii the
Vigiliince Coiiuuittee is no idle Ijoast. That they will attempt outrages is
bcyoiul .1 doubt. Their fricnils and al)ettors in this city will keep them fully
posted with the names and business views of all whom they consider will
aO'ord a good show of plunder, and murder will prove their safety against
further recognition or detection; for, like Jack Powers and Pio Linares, their
motto is, ' Dead men tell no tales. '

■'Under these circumstances what is the duty of the good, law-abiding
citizens who have settled or may settle in the new mines? As to law, there
is none to l)c had there. If it were extended over them, none of that class
of SI) -called politicians who readily become the friends and tools of the
banditti would give up their prospect of making a 'pile' to till offices of
respon.sibility. Our advice is for the miners to organize themselves into
Sinned companies, keep up a strict volunteer police, and administer justice
\vhenever rciiuired, in a manner that will deter these villains from commit-
ting crime. To be forewarned is to bo foreanned. Danger to life and prop-
erty stares them in the face. Then let them be prepared to prevent it at tlic
outset. The gamblers should be shunned and scouted by all honest men ;
the bully and the shoulder-striker should be admonished to keep ijuict
and eain an honest living, or prepare to take up his traps aiul march. The
nmrderer and robber should be shown no mercy. At the first unmistakable
conviction of such an oflfence the murderer should be hanged as high as
Hamaii, ami his body left to dangle as a warning to his companions in guilt.

" This summary proceeding may sound hai-sh to the ears of such persoua

MIGRATIONS OF CRIMINALS.

430

as have not witncsaed the troubles in this state. We expect it will call forth
a liowl of indignation from the venal press in the iutorcMt of gunihltra and
thieves; but it will be ilisre^'arded as the wluMtling of the wind. Those who
know the desperate character of these men, and are uciiiiuinted witli tlieir
I'ornicr vile deed.s in this state, know full well that we reconnnt'nd tlu' nidy
means whicli will aflbrd safety to property and life intho unprotected country
to which immigration is now pouring. Such organization of miners will also
iifTord protection against the bold savages who inhabit the north, and wlioare
iiostilc to the whites. To these savages will the desperadoes resort for i)ro-
ti'ction and aid. It is the duty, therefore, of the miners to prepare for
trouble. Punish the offendei-s promptly, and the lives of many honest ana
innocent men will Ikj spared. Let them but get the start in crime, and many
a happy homo will be made desolate. The safety of all consists in prompt and
tlccidcd action."

Tliroughout the interior, more than in tho city,
uil)itrary administration of justice was regarded hy
the people with greater favor tlian the regular pro-
ceediniifs of courts. The institution of vigilance ac-
corded with the spirit of the times. Its inaeliinery
was unimpeded by the friction of forms; its sentences
were final and speedily executed. Then, too, it was
more needed, if possible, in the country than in the
cities. The people were more scattered, conmiunities
Diorc isolated and self-dependent; they were more
exposed, less capable of continuous and concerted
action.

They had few jails, and thought that to stand guard
over criminals captured by their own exertions and at
their own expense was paying too much deference to
crime; such i)rocedure ill-accorded with their temper
or means. Quick let the bad cease to be, and then
each to his affairs.

So effectual were the workings of these organiza-
tions that, like all the institutions originating from the
necessities of the times, the frontiersman began to like
it, and to look upon it as a part of himself, his cate-
chism, his country. After civilization had set its seal
ui)on the town of Yankee Jim, a miner summoned
as a juror in a murder case was asked by the judge if
he had any conscientious scruples against capital
punishment.

440

EXTENSION OF THE \ IGILANCE PKIXCU'LE.

"Yes, your honor, I have," ho replied; "that is,
unless administered by a vigilance committee."

The modes of punishment were many and varied,
being always such as should bring disgrace, and
usually such as should attach humiliation and pain.
Shooting was sometimes employed, but not often.
Whipping and driving from camp were frequent; but
the most common punishment was hanging. For
what better purpose did the solitary oaks send out
their long, ungainly branches ? It was a simple
process, throwing a rope over the limb of a tree and
tying one end of it round the neck of the offender.
The rabble would then seize the other end of the
rope and run with it as far as the ascending body
would permit. Mexicans were sometimes hanged
from mules, standing on the back of the animal until
the rope was adjusted, when the mule, frightened by
blows and yells, jumped from under the victim, leav-
ing him suspended. At the outset punishment was
not so severe as later, when the executioners had
become more accustomed to the workings of the
system, and to scenes of blood.

CHAPTER XXIX.

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

Here is a mine of truth, which, however
is likely to outlaat our coal.

'ijorously it may be worked,
Oeorge Eliot.

Let us now examine some of the more dignified
popular tribunals outside of San Francisco. It was
almost simultaneously, as soon as people began to
understand something of the nature of the organiza-
tion of June 9, 1851, that similar associations were
formed throughout the length and breadth of the land.

The Vigilance Committee of Sacramento vao lir.'t
foimally created the 25th of June, about a fortni:^lit
al'tcr the organization of the first Vigilance Coninnt-
tec in San Francisco. Two hundred and thirteoii
inoinbers were enrolled at the first meeting, which
was held ftc the Orleans Hotel, and thereafter the
muiiber rapidly increased. P. B. Cornwall was cliosen
invsidcnt, and the executive committee consisted of
Messrs ^lilno, C'lryec, Rightmire, Watson, Latson,
Cheslcy, Barkci", Meeks, Leake, and Gciger.

Prior 1 1 this time, as we have seen, there had been
several summary arrests and pvmisliments of greater
or less degree. But this was hardly sullicient, in view
of the rapid development of events. When tin; best
men of Sacramento saw what San Francisco was
t-loing, saw the immediate good cftects of their uiii(|ue
association, they obtained a copy of the constitution
and by-laws of the San Francisco Committee and
organized on the same plan.

In common with the entire country, the City of

[441]

^i:

442

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

the Plains was infected with the leprosy of crime ; and
as this landing was then the rendezvous for adven-
turers from San Francisco and elsewhere to the
northern mines, rascality here partook at once of
the character of that of the city and of the country.
Thither resorted commercial, agricultural, and mining
desperadoes ; sailors and professionals from San Fran-
cisco, cattle-stealers and highway robbers from the
valleys, and gamblers and murderers from the mines.

We will glance briefly at Sacramento's infelicities
about this time. In April, 1851, Mr Lawrence,
editor of the Times and IVanscrijJt, was attacked b}-
certain political desperadoes then infesting the city.
A manifesto was issued, and within an hour five hun-
dred citizens pledged themselves, in writing, to pro-
tect Mr Lawrence, and any other members of the
press, against which class villainy for the moment
seemed directed.

On the 17th of July following, as Mr Lawrence
was passing the court-house, J. Neely Johnson stepped
up and demanded whether he was the author of a cer-
tain paragraph published in the Times and Tvanscript
that morning, at which Johnson had taken ofFenc(\
Not receiving a satisfactory reply, Johnson seized the
journalist's nose and wrung it magisterially. Law-
rence drew a pistol and would have fired had he not
been disarmed by the by-standers. The reader must
know that this was the same Johnson who afterward,
as governor of California, was so horrified at tlie doings
of the San Francisco Conimittee of 185G that he was
ready, had he been strong enough, to deluge the strL'et>
of the city in the blood of its best citizens. T(»
avenge a personal injury he did not hesitate to defy
the law; but when the people themselves, for tlu;
preservation of society, laid their hand on law it was
sacrilege.

Four men were caught robbing a citizen of Sacra-
mento on the Dth of July. The crime was perpetrated

AFFAIRS AT SACRAMENTO.

443

ill open day, in the suburbs of the city, and was wit-
nessed by several persons. While the thieves were
Iteing taken before the court of sessions the Commit-
tee of Vigilance convened for deliberation, and a
crowd of about one thousand persons collected before
the station-house and attempted by force to obtain
] possession of the prisoners. A committee of throe
was then chosen to wait on the officers and request
posbcssion of the prisoners for hanging purposes.
This request the limbs of the law very properly de-
nied. Brought into court, the prisoners, by their
counsel, insisted on the time allowed by law for the
])roparation of their defence, and the trial was conse-
(juently postponed. This delay caused great commo-
tion among the crowd, and on putting the question to
vote it was almost unanimon sly decided to hang the
thieves that day. Seeing the ominous aspect of affairs,
the prisoners' counsel consented to proceed to trial at
once. All were convicted ; one was ordered away to
the state prison, and the others were sentenced to be
hanged. This was the first attempt at inter i'or(.>nce
u ith the regular process of law by the Sacramento
Vigilance Committee, and the result speaks loudly
ihoir moderation.

iVbout a week before this a man named Franklin
Sant'ord, who had been arrested at Daylor's rancho,
charged with shooting cattle and selling the meat, was
with difficulty saved from the vengeance of the peoj)le.
ilc was finally taken to Sacramento and bound over
by Judge Sackett in three thousand dollars bonds.

It seemed impossible for the men of Sydney to
keep their fingers from their neighbors' property.
About this time, on the 8th of July, one of the fra-
ternity who took passage on board the Senator for
Sacramento was twice within an hour caught steal-
ing. The first time it was a pair of shoes from a
Ciiinaman — O base-born son of Albion! to steal the
worthless wooden shoes of a greasy Asiatic I Next it
was five dollars in gold which a passenger laid on the

444

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OP VIGILANCE.

count(>r at the bar, and which the thief took up. The
captain beini^ inforniod of the traffic, took the offender
forward to the windlass, and after giving him three
dozen lasbos put him ashore. The same day a thief
named Hodge was arrested, who regarded iiis execu-
tion a foregone conclusion, and manifested profound
indifference as to preliminaries.

The 22d of August, two days before the execution
of Whittaker and ^IcKenzie, there was great ex
citemeiit in Sacramento. Two liighwaymen, James
Gibson and John Thompson, convicted some time be-
fon^ were executed by the sheriff; a third, Robinson,
received a respite of liis sentence from the governor.
This did not suit the Vigilance Committei^, They
<lemanded that Robinson likewise should be hanged,
and as the slioriff had no authority to do it they did
it themselves. When the hour for the execution
arrived the shei'ifT brought the three men from tin
station-house, and after reading the reprieve of Rob
inson ordered the two who were condemned to tin
place of execution and the third to the prison brii;,
Ijut on their wav the guard of tlie latter was over
])owered and the prisoner taken to the grove wheir
tlu' exe(Mition of the others wa-' in pnigress. Aft( i
tile ,sh(<riff liad discharged Jiis duty in respect to tin
two condennied, an<l had washed his hands of wliiU
was to follow, I*obi)ison was /iiounted on tlie sann
nuK-hine bv the Vigilance ( 'onunittee and sent speed
il\' thence to t'ollow his conn'ades. That niijht a mass
meeting was hold at lli<> Orleans Hotel; on motion
the governor was ?'equested to resign, after which \\r
was hanged and bm'UiMl in ctligy,

Ri)l)inson's life lV»m eaily boyhood was a succes
sion of ci-imc; he hesitated at notliing, however dia-
bolii-al. He was a native of New York city, and v.a
thirty-two years of age. Wliile at school, and bui
tliirteen years old, he iiad foi-ged the name of ;>
easliier of a bank at the suj^uestion of one (Jranstii* ,
who was but a i'ew years older, and who forged tii.

THE CAREER OF ROBINSON.

445

jircsidont's name. They were successful in this eiiter-
])iise, drawin*^ $4500 on the check. Granstine, Rob-
inson, and another accomplice, attempted a robbery
soon after of $7000, which Granstine acconi) Wished
by the murder of a young woman, for which crime he
\v;is lianged.

Airived at the acfc of sixteen, Rol)inson with the
aid of an accomplice robbed his own fiitlicr of $*2r)()0.
Then going to Pittsburg he obtained a ])]acc as cabin-
boy on board a steamboat. At the instigation of tlie
steward lie stole from a passenger, while asli^ep, $;]{)00
in gold. Robinson met the steward again in Cincin-
nati; they ti'avellcd together to New Orleans, when^
lliey engaged in new crimes. Robinson obtain* ;d a,
ft s])onsible position in a hotel, where he rcmaintxl
several months. Tlien with accomplices he rol)bed
the safe of $5000, for which crime he was arrested on
si!si)icion, but was able to make apparent his iiuio-
ri'uce. Meeting on one occasion in Albany two nun,
Hunt and E(hvards, by whom he was known as a skil-
ful penman and a sliarp rascal, thoy made him th<.ur
])artner, and oxpended $300 on him for dress and
ji'wolry. that lie miglit pass as a gentlenKin. ACttir
due j)r<.'paration lie presented at a bank a forged
<li«x'k for $2500, and obtained the money without
dilHcidty. In Philadelphia, where they went innne-
(liardy, ho practised on one name for several days,
milil he was able to counterfeit it so well that on
a check $20,000 was drawn from the bank. Rob-
inson's share was $(»000. He sent to his mother the
larger ])art of it, telling her he had drawn it at a lot-
'ei'v. In Baltimore the associattxl scoundrels obtained
•"^l.sOOO in the same way. In (^incinnaii another
ehfck for $20,000 was successfully forged and jia .sed.
llduards boasted his contempt for small things. At
Louisville the same amount waso])tained in the same
\vay. Here Robinson, dissatislitid with the division,
(H;arrelled with and separated from his comjtanions.

Prom Louisville RubiuK^on went tu New Orleans.

446

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

There he robbc.l tiie custom-houee safe; a negro who
was his accomplice was arrested or: suspicion and
whipped, but divulged nothing. On a plantation
where he was afterward employed ho opened a safe
and abstracted $4000. Thence Ilobinson went to St
Louis. A United States oflicer was his next victim,
whose robbery yielded him i?7000 which belonged to
the government. He coolly stood by and saw anotlici-
uxec.'uted for this deed. Ilobinson was engafjed in
thefts of greater or less magnitude constantly. In
travelling from one point to another liis fellow-
pa.ssengers were his victims. For knocking a man
down with a slung-shot and taking 81300 from his
belt, Itobinson was arrested, but esca[>ed by paying his
lawyers libornlly. In Cincinnati he an<l an accomjilic*-
broke open a jewlery establishment, and his partnei"
in the crime was imprisoned for seven years. Mem-
phis, Vic-ksburg, and Natchez in turn were success-
I ally visited by this prince of villains. He sent his
mother money again, $2000, leaving in his possession
^-j^SOO in altered bills. Hogan, an accomplice in many
of his crimes, was hanged for murder in Cincinnati.
In St Louis Robinson obtained money by forgery,
and as a pickpocket achieved great success. In New
()rleans he was six months in the county jail for theft.
At various times he was arrested, when false swearing,
1/iibery. and the skill of lawyers cleared liim.

After becoming notorious tlirougli the soutli and
east, with detectives on liis track, he came to 1h(!
Pacific coast. At Marysville lie attemjited to kill his
wife, on account of her unfaithliilness; esca|)ing from
his pursuers he went to Nevada. Hi' followed his
]>rofession successfully w]ier<!V(T he went; some of his
stolen goods he disposed of to I^'lehcr Kay. In
Sacranuinto he perpetrated many successful lelonies.
But his rare luck at length deserted him. With two
or three companions, who had been driidving and gam-
bling at a certain place, Robinson started lor a saloon.
One of the men, Wilson, was an acquaintance of but a

ATTACK ON JUDGE ^VILSON.

fow hours ; ho was thought to have some money upon
him, and as they reached some bushes in the road Rob-
inson and an accompUcc threw Wilson on the ground.,
and robbed him. Robinson was soon arrested. All
tliis on the authority of the miscreant himself, which
the reader may take with whatever allowance his
jiKlgment dictates. Strange that in the heroics of
(■rime the tendency should be so marked for the vil-
lain to magnify his own villainies. And this was the
man the governor would pardon.

Henry Caulfickl, who had been prominent in the
Sacramento squatter riots, and Jolm McKune, a
Sa<Tament(> lawyer, were the personal enemies of
.liidge Wilson of the court of sessions. Foi- some
i'aiicied wrong they determined to obtain satisfaction,
and for that [)ur[)os(; l(jitered about th<.' court-room
on the morning of the IGth of June, lHr)2, until
adjournment. JNIcKune then accost(;d Wilson and
(Icniandcd his retraction of abusive language. Wilson
r('|)lied tliat he never retracted anything tliat lie said.
McKune then raised a bhulgeon that he held in his
hand and strucl; Wilson, wIk, rc;taliate«l by thrusting
his sword-cane into liis adversary's side. l)(;puty-
shcriif ^^cDonald then disarmed Wilson, wheieiipon
(Jaullield, who had l)een watching his opportunity,
sj)rang forward and fired at the judge. At that in-
stant McDonald rushed betweciu Caullield and ^\'iIson,
and the ball which proi>ably would have kille(l the
jndgt! passed through ^[clJonald's body. With blood
gushing from the wound, he fell u[)on Caulfield and
wrested the weai)on from him. The by-standers now
(Altered the arena, and shooting, stabbing, and striking
t)c(ame general. AIcKune was carried away exclaim-
ing. " I'm a dead man!" and Caullield was arrested and
['laced on board the [)rison l)rig, there to await the
result of the shooting. The Vigilance Conunitteo
met at the Orleans Hotel. Of this meeting the
citizens were notified by a man going through tho

448

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

streets ringing a bell. When it was ascertained that
the wounds inflicted were not Hkely to prove fatal, the
decision of the meeting was to leave the matter in the
hands of the law.

One Conrad Sacksin, on the night of the 27tli of
January, 1853, was caught in the commission of an
act too inl'amous for record; and the description given
of his punishment is scarcely more fit for perusal.
He was taken to the hwv, tried, and convicted. The
question then nrose what the punishment should bo.
llev. O. C. Wheeler presented the case to the people
and put the question to vote. Some were for hang-
ing and others for nnitilation. At last whipping was
decided on, one hundred lashes to be the infliction.
Six respectable citizens were chosen for the execution
of the sentence. Then with sickening detail the
matter is discussed and the punishment described in
the account before me, which I will gladly spare the
reader.

These examples had a beneficial effect not only on
criminals but on the Sacramento courts. Justice
there assumed a more determined tone. An evil-doer
could not always buy oft' or beg off, nor could any
villainous lawyer for money clear him. There is no
limit to the slaughter of innocents if we may belic^'e
the martyrs to nmrder. On the open plain near
Sutter Fort in April of this year three men were
executed by the shcrifl^' for the killing, near the corner
of J] and Tenth streets, of one John Carrol, known
as J^oot-jack. Shrived by the Rev. (). C. Wheeloi-,
salvation they considered sure; and while in this
pious state of mind tliey humbly confessed that thoy
could not toll a lie, that tlioy did not do this murdor,
l)ut that it was done by a cunning child of pordition,
who made his escape; nevertheless they were hangod.
The ])o.sition hold by tlie Sacramento Connnittee of
Vigilance during the past two years made it incum-
bent on the courts to hang somebody.

STOCKTON AND VIGILANCE.

440

Stockton in early times stood in the same relation
to the southern mines that did Sacramento to the
nt)rthern. To this point was shipped merchandise lor
the districts of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Calaveras,
Tuolumne, and ^Mariposa, which was conveyed thcnee
hy teams; and there, as in Sacramento, congregated
gold-hunters and traders on their way to and I'rom
.sDuthern parts.

The destruction of the city by fire on the Gth of
May, 1851, two days after the great San Francisco
iirc, stirred the fury in the hearts of the inhabitants.
Tlie firing of Stockton, like the kindling of San Fran-
cisco, was the work of incendiaries. Tliere were tht-n
confined in the city prison certain noted characters
whose deliverance their associates sought to accom-
plish, so it was thought, by these means; but the
wind changing, their plans were defeated, though o^
the expense of the business portion of the town.

The detection of a party of horse -thieves in the
vicinity of Stockton about the 1st of June led to
the disclosure of a brotherhood in crime extending
throughout all tliat region. This was the band which
under Joaquin ^lurieta had just begun its depreda-
tions, and which was soon destined to b. come the
terror of the country. The first one of tluui captured
the people prepared to hang, but after undergoing the
])reliminary acts of strangulation he was spared on
turning informer. Some of the gang were surprised
at a fandango, and after being well whipped they were
turned over to the authorities. In court when the
informer was called upon the witness-stand ho refused
to testify against his accomplices, whereupon tlie
crowd made a rush upon him to complete the un-
linished acts of their trauedv, when a confiict with
the authorities ensued, in which pistols were freely
drawn, thousj^h no damage was done, ^reanwhile a
]K't)ple's court assembled to try the keeper of the ren-
dezvous, who was convicted, ])lunged into the river
several times, and afterward stiipped, whipped severely,

Pop. Tbiu., Vol. ':. 20

COtJNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

and ordered to leave the town within sixteen hours.
At his liouse were found .ill the implements of burglary
and murder. These tools were of the finest description,
such as were used by tlu most accomplished villains;
the men were good looking and well dressed, and their
assaults, the cold atrocity of their crimes, and their
boldness and skill, marked them as adepts long and
well practised in every specio!.< of rascality. Thus the
times were becoming ripe for a more solemn declara-
tion against criminals.

Nor was the sentiment by any means discouraged
by the newspaper press. Says the Stockton Journal:

"Without war cry, we have an enemy in our midsh whose signal is theft !
murder ! fire ! If an enemy should attack us from without, all would rise
and repel him. The laws are good for peaceful times, but for such turmoil
as wo now endure stringent measures are necessary."

Another writes, the 5th of June:

" The recent detection of a band of marauders in Stockton, and the watch-
fulness of the people both there and in this city, gives promise that, with
a united efl'ort in every portion of the country infested by these scoundrels,
we shall soon be rid of their depredations. The sy.st'-m of rapine carried on
so successfully of late commenced some few montlis after the first discovery uf
the mines; anil it lias continued ever since in difTcrent portions of the
country generally with impunity. In the northern and southern mines
the depredations have consisted in thefts of horses and cattle. In the
lower ranch country, murders, plunders of houses, and robberies of stock
have been from time to time committed; and in tho cities the warfare
has been conducted in the shape of burglary, theft, and assassination.
The papers discovered on the persons of tlie thieves in Stockton on
Monday last, as well as other developments previously made, lead to
the belief that there has existed all along an organized gang of brigands,
associated in crime, and conducting their Ishmaelitish war upon society in
general from dilFercnt points of the country. Xo doubt exists in the public
mind that this association planned and carried into execution the recent con-
flagrations in tliis city, Stockton, and Nevada; and the various atrocitic.'^
committed last summer and ascribed to the unfortunate Mexicans were unques-
tionably the work of this band of miscreants. There is also reason to believe
that it is composed of some half-breed Indians, some f !W Mexicans and Ameri-
cans, and the larger portion of Sydney men. That they arc well practised i!i
all manner of rascality is evident from the instruments they use in their
burglaries and thefts. Their mode of practise is pronounced by police-
officers to bo that of perfect adepts in tlie profession. Their assaults and

THE LAW AROUSED.

451

murders exhibit likewise a cold atrocity whicii can only be acqnired by years
of crime. It is full time some moans were atloptcd to rid the country of this
organization. The commencement should be mode in this city, and tlie means
arc very simple. There are three or four gentlemen in this city who have u
thorougli acquaintance with the pcrnond and haunts of all the uotoiioua
thieves and burglars. A ctnnmittec of oiti/eus should be appouitod, th^sc
noquaintcd with them should Iks emiiloycil to point out thosi? notorious
characters, a vessel should be charteied and victualled, and every man kiiowii
to the police to l>e implicated in crime should Ite placed on Ijoard and sent out
of the country. Hanging would have an excellent efl'ect unquestionably, but
liaiiging one or two will not rid the cnnimimity of the remainder. Let a
general war be made on thtie scoinidrels, quietly and without bloodshed let
it be, but witii the distinct intimation that should they ever return they
will be summarily. dealt with. We believe that to send them out ot' the
country is tlie only efl'ectual method of getting rid of these pests, and wc
trust the method will be adopted."

The law being thus pricked, as well by the vi«ril-
auce association as by the press, James Wilson, afi(fs
Mountain Jim, one ot* the party just mentioned, w.is
convicted of liorsc-stealing bet'on; the Stockton court
of sessions in October and was adjudged to die. When
the foreman of the jury delivered the verdict, tlio
|)risoner, who was lolling back in his chair lookiii*^
up abstractedly at the ceiling, quietly remarked, " J
cx})ected as much, by God!"

At a meeting held in Stockton on the 13th of
.lune, 1851, one hundred and seventy of those then
l)rcsent enrolled themselves as a Citizen Police, whiv'h
was preliminary to tlie organization of a committee
of vigilance. On this occasion the town was divided,
and resident watclnnen appointed for each district.
The municipal council was then petitioned to clothe
the association with authority, which being refu.sed,
the people determined to act without authority.

Dr McLean, a member of the Stockton Vigilance
Committee, in July ariested a Mexican for stealing a
horse, and carried the offender before the executi\e
committee. The officers of the law, whose wits were
somewhat sharper than those of their San Francisco
brethren, hearing of it, arrested McLean on a charge

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452

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

of resisting the police. McLean's resistance was in
refusing to give to the law a criminal he had caught
at his own cost. He was forced to give bail for his
appearance at court in the sum of $3000, which he
did cheerfully and went his way.

A package of papers in the pocket of the editor of
the Stockton Journal prevented the ball fired from the
pistol of Mr Gaugh, district attornej- of San Joaquin,
from entering his heart. This was in October, 1851.
There was quite a chivalrous element in Stockton in
those days, at the head of which was 'he who was
afterward Judge Terry, of bloody memory. Mark
once more, the very men who most easily and natu-
rally broke the law when it stood in the way of their
bad passions were the first to denounce those who
broke the law when it stood in the way of principle
and common weal. I do not say that one should
never lift his hand to right a wrong or avenge an in-
sult; that is not the question. I only wonder that
those who do this should talk so much about our im-
maculate institutions, our sacred statutes, and our
holy laws.

The San Joaquin Repvhlican, the first newspaper
published in Stockton, was started by George Kerr
in 1850. Successors to Mr Kerr were Joseph Mans-
field and H. C. Patrick. Another of the earliest
Stockton papers was the Journal, at one time edited
by John S. Robb and at another time by John Tabor.
Journalists in those days, like the politicians, were
pugilistic in their tendencies. Positive, plain-speak-
ing men, they often gave offence to those whose con-
duct was condemnable, which was too frequently the
case among those who manipulated the elections or
wlio had the handling of ])ublic funds. Editors who
opposed each other in politics or public measures like-
wise collided.

The contest for governor in 1853 was heated, and
brought out the wliole str-ougth of the contending

MARYSVILLE COMMITTEE.

453

candidates, John Bigler and William Waldo. The
Republican and the Journal warmed into personalities,
until Mansfield met Tabor one day and told him that
to assail his private character would not do. Besides
politics, there was trouble between these two journals
as to certain spoils. To secure the public printing at
a large price, it had been agreed that the Republican
should put in two bids, takmg care that both should
be large enough, and that the plunder obtained in
consequence of the absence of fair competition should
be divided between them. All went well until the
Republican refused to share the spoils with the Journal.
Next day after the meeting above mentioned, which
was the 22d of June, 1854, the editors again encoun-
tered each other, when Tabor without a word of
warning drew a pistol and shot Mansfield dead. !Mans-
field was a fat, good natured man, with scarcely an
enemy in the world, and the killing of hiui was
deliberate murder. And so the jury regarded it, for
they found against Tabor, and he was sentenced to be
hanged. But meanwhile John Bigler was elected
governor — and should he see a man strangled for zual
in his cause? Bj'" no means. Tabor was pardoned.
And the pardon was in this wise: Forty thousand
names asking clemency were attached to a petition;
but before it wont up to the governor the heading
was changed from mitigation to full pardon. Vigilance
slumbered.

Marysville stands near the junction of the Yuba
and Feather rivers, and was once the head of river
navigation in this direction, and the distributing point
tor the counties of Sutter, Yuba, Nevada, Sierra, and
Butte.

Tn cases of exile the interior committees, who as a
umtter of course were unable to ship their criminals
to foreign parts, did the best they could. If cases
wore chronic, and of a general character, they handed
them over, with the evidence, to the San Francisco

454

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

Committee. If local, or of a milder form of the
scourge, the vagabonds were driven away to prey on
others.

All along through the summer and autumn of 1851
the Committee of Vigilance which had been organized
in Marysville did good service, and were largely in-
strumental in rendering the upper country inhabitable.
In October the association resolved that a committee
of ten be appointed as a standing committee, who
should have power to call a meeting at any time, and
do and perform such duties as might be thought
necessary for the welfare of the community. They
should likewise have power to adopt any rules which
tended to promote the efficiency of the general body,
and to fill any vacancies that might occur among their
own number. F. W. Schaeffer, J. L. McDuffic, R.
A. Eddy, W. W. Smith, H. Beach, L. Steinhart,
Charles Gleason, John G. Smith, Charles Ball, and
E. Woodruff were appointed such committee.

iis

I''

Vi' :

4 \l

Earl}' in November word was brought to Honcut
by two travellers that four Mexicans had been met
on the road a few miles from Natchez, one of whom
was dragging a man with a lariat, whom they probably
intended to murder. They were powerless to inter-
fere, as they Vv^cre not sufficiently armed to resist the
Mexicans ; when they reached Natchez they gave the
sauK.^ account to the authorities there. Parties from
Honcut and Natchez started at once to make investi-
gation. The Honcut party, after a little search,
found the body of a man, which was recognized as
George Mather, from Boston or vicinity, who had
been engaged in transporting goods to the mines.
This account they brought back to Natchez. The
others soon returned, having made a still more shock-
ing discovery, as they had found the bodies of two
men, Gardner and Jinkerson, who had left Honcut
rancho on foot that morning for Natchez. They
probabl}- had endeavored to rescue Mather from the

JOAQUIN MURIETA.

455

Mexicans, and liad lost their lives in the attempt.
When wagons were sent out for the bodies it was
found that they were lying but a hundred yards apart.
Jinkerson had received seventeen stabs, almost any
of which would have proved fatal; Gardner and
Mather had their throats cut, and all of them had
marks of a lariat upon their necks, having been
dragged out of the road by that means. The pockets
of all three of the ^'^ounj? men were rifled. There had
been seventeen murders committed within a few days,
among others, several at Bidwell Bar, ten or fifteen
miles up the river, and the people were intent upon
discovering the authors of these crimes and bringinjj
them to justice.

In the suburbs of Marysville, at what was called
the Sonorian Camp, was a band of Mexicans, who were
strongly suspected as the guilty party. A Mexican
thief, captured by the Vigilance Committee a few
days before, had confessed to the fact that the Sono-
rian Camp was the retreat of many well known mur-
derers and robbers. On the niijht of the 12tli R. B.
Buchanan, sheriff of Yuba county, accompanied by
a posse, proceeded to the camp to make an arrest.
Hitching their horses a half mile distant, they ad-
vanced cautiously, the bright moonlight i-endering
their position all the more dangerous. Presently a
large dog came out at them, and though quickly
stabbed, it« bark had alarmed the camp. As the
sheriff's party drew nearer they saw standing by the
fire a Mexican, lichly attired and armed to tlie teeth,
peering at them through the chaparral. It Avas after-
ward ascertained that this man was no other than
the redoubtable Joaquin Murieta, here encamped with
his band.

Being thus discovered, the sheriff endeavored to
retreat; he was fired upon by the robbers, and re-
turned the fire. For a short time there was quite a
brisk enga^'ement. The sheriff then fell back, but
while climbing a fence was shot by Murieta and

i M

456

COUNTRY COIOIITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

severely wounded. The city, already aroused, sent
out a large force against the robbers. The camp was
deserted, the Mexicans having secreted themselves in
the chaparral near by. The place was surrounded,
but in the darkness nothing could be done. Two
shots were fired by the Mexicans from their hiding-
place, when the pursuers retired, leaving a guard for
the night. Next day a merchant distributed arms to
twenty-five more men, who went to the chaparral,
when it was found that the night guard had deserted
their post, and the Mexicans had escaped. There
was plainly apparent a lack of something, and the
Marysville Vigilance Committee at once reorganized.

About the same time a vigilance committee was
in session at Natchez for the purpose of ferreting the
murderers of John B. Gardner, C. Jinkerson, and
George Mather, such being the names of the men
killed the lltli of November. Eight hundred dollars
reward was offered by the citizens for their capture.
The committee arrested several suspicious characters,
but accomplished little directly.

The same week six men were murdered near Grass
Valley. A vigilance committee was at once oi-gan-
ized, armed, and mounted, with E. B. Lundy as leader.
An organization of the same kind was also formed in
Opliir.

In July, 1852, three several attempts were made to
fire the city of Marysville, in consequence of which
the Vigilance Committee assembled and instituted
such diligent search for the felons that for a time
quiet reigned. This organization and its successors
continued for many years, for as late as 1858 we find
that through the influence or agency of the Marys-
ville Committee of Vigilance, on the 8th of January
the captain of the police, by order of the city marshal,
was enabled to escort to the steamboat landing five
desperadoes, some of them notorious, others strongly
suspected of crime. The captives were then com-
pelled to pay their fare and depart down the river.

MAD MULE CAffON.

457

Twenty lashes were given one Mercer by the Shasta
Vigilance Committee the 19th of September, 1851,
which work was the result of an investigation made
by them in the matter of a theft committed at the
St Charles Hotel the night before. It appears that
Pat Sullivan had given his purse to Mercer to weigh
from it an ounce of gold dust. Mercer stepped to the
counter for this purpose, and when he returned to
where Sullivan was sitting, as he appeared in no
haste to give back the purse, Sullivan demanded it of
him. Mercer gave it him, but it was lighter by more
than an ounce than before. Said Sullivan: "You
have taken my money." Mercer was searched, and
six ounces in loose gold dust found in his pocket.
Thereupon the Vigilance Committee whipped him;
for of such were their chastisements.

There was a place called Mad Mule Canon, in the
Shasta district, which name was a libel on the species
asinus beside the doings of men in that locahty. One
day a man, made insane by his thirst for gold, mur-
dered his keeper and took from his belt a thousand
dollars in gold dust. He then attacked another and
cut him fearfully before he could be secured. To the
credit of the miners be it said that to comrades so
afflicted — and the cases were numerous — theymani-
iestud the utmost leniency, and treated them with
evory kindness, watching them with patient self-denial
night and day lest they should injure themselves or
others. The offenders met their just i'ato. But why
name a canon from a mad mule when there were so
many mad men about?

A Missourian named Holt, having made a little
fortune in the mines at Woaverville, was about readv
to start for home. While making the necessary prepa-
rations he was murdered a short distance from town.
Suspicion fell upon a man named Michael Grant, who
was arrested by the sheriff. The miners seized the
prisoner, and appointed from their numbers those to
act as judge, prosecuting attorney, and prisoner's

458

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

iJi

counsel. The trial was fairly conducted, responsible
witnesses examined, and Grant was sentenced to be
hanged. At his earnest request ten days were al-
lowed him to arrange his business, and to prepare for
death ; ho protested his innocence, and said that they
would yet discover the guilty person. He received
the ministrations of a Catholic clergyman, who was
with him at the time of his death, October 5, 1852,
when he was executed in the presence of a large con-
course of people at Weaverville.

The Chico Courant thus prays for a vigilance com-
mittee in September, 18G6:

"Robberies and murdcra are getting to be overy-day occurrences in this
state — altogether too frequent for the good health of the community. The
fact is, as much aa we arc inclined to ' law and order,' we have about arrived
at the conclusion that 'law and order' is too slow a coach for these r;isc;ds.
Wo recommend that the people of the state form themselves into a huge
vigilance committee and take the matter of wiping out these villains into their
own hands. Wholesome killing on a general plan is what is needed."

In 1853 there was in Eureka a small unpainted
house, occupied by a Jew as a clothing and shoe store.
The Jew was a large man of forty, who lived with a
nephew of seventeen, his only companion. After
several years of successful business the Jew sold
everything and prepared to remove from the place.
He was known as indefatigable in business and
close in his expenditures, and it was generally con-
ceded that he must have realized considerable money.
This probability tempted three burglars, McDonald,
Canosky, and another, to enter his store the night
previous to his intended departure, murder the Jew
and his nephew, and secure the money. An hour or
two later a young man in Duff and Company's mill,
going through the hall on the way to his room,
stumbled over what at first he supposed a bag of
shot, but on examination proved to be gold. There
was a light in the next room, McDonald's, and he
hurriedly entered to show his treasure and ask Mc-

THE NORTHEBN SEABOARD.

400

Donald what ho supposed it meant. McDonald le-
plied, "We've robbed the old Jew, and I must have
(hopped one of his bags in the hall; give it to me."
This led to further questioning and a divulgciicc of
the trutli, that the Jew had not only been robbed but
killed. McDonald then acted like a man bereft of his
senses. He eagerly told the story how Canosky, liini-
self, and another accomplice entered the store at mid-
nitjht. The Jew sat at a table writinsf, with his back
to them, and the nephew was sleeping in another
room. With a hatchet both the man and the boy
were killed; then taking their gold a distribution was
made, and each man returned to his own home with
his treasure. The story McDonald told was repeated
to the authorities, and two of the murderers arrested;
and as there was no jail in Eureka at this time they
were placed in a wooden building under guard.

There was no violent demonstration by the people,
but they acted according to their custom in such cases.
They met and deliberated. The third villain was still
iit large, and their first effort must be to find him.
Accordingly they invited everyljody from all the
neighboring country to meet with them at a desig-
nated time. Then they adopted this novel expedient :
They placed the murderers in a position where the
<;rowd should pass them singly, and if they saw their
accomplice they should indicate which he was. Many
an innocent person paled as he passed under their scru-
tiny, for should he be pointed out, to gratify a desire
ibr revenge or from any other motive, he was a doomed
man. Their confederate, however, was not among the
number, or at all events was not designated by the
prisoners, nor was he ever found. Immediately after
ward McDonald and Canosky were taken to a tal
}jine tree, where a crowd gathered and witnessed theii
execution. And the waves still sound their requien
en the beach where they were buried.

Early in July, 1851, a vigilance committee wai
formed at Nevada City, California. The attempted

■4

■Mi

460

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

}; ■ il
'i

ill

robbery of F, A. Houghton while on the way from
Grass Valley to Buena Vista Ranch, together with
other obnoxious doings, stimulated the action of the;
people. No part of the country was then safe apart
from popular measures offensive to crime.

To show the aim of the San Francisco Committoc^
in its intercourse with the interior, and the influenct;
which must necessarily have followed from it, I give
the following letter:

"San Francisco, July 28, 1851.
"To the Committee of Vigilance, Nevada City:

"Gentlemen: — In the name of the executive committee of the Commit-
tee of Vigilance of San Francisco, and at the request of your friends, I en-
close you a copy of our constitution. So far we have acted under it witli
.success in punishing crime and bringing those in authority to a sense of their
duty. Our great aim, gentlemen, is to remove corruption from high places,
to advance the safety and interest of our adopted state, to establish justic(!
and virtue, without which our fall and ruin would be certain. To secure ia
the future the great objects we have in view it would be well to look into tlir
character aijd principles of those whom we would elevate to office, to drag
out into light those who may be in office and guilty of corruption, who by
their acts have produced so nmch evil. It is an old and popular doctrine, that
it nay be necessary to sacrifice the government to the people, but never tin.'
people to the government. That your course may be marked with prudeueu
and justice, may God grant. Do not permit vindictiveness to enter into your
deliberations. Be calm and determined ; swerve not to the right nor to tlio
left, but go onward in your pursuit of right. Be of one mind, and carry your
point. The might, majesty, and power of the people can overcome all im-
pending evils ; like the thunders of heaven it will shake to naught all cor
rupti ve influences, and drive its fiuthors into obli\'ion. Let the motto of oui'
father's be ours to sustain and perpetuate — Virtue, Liberty. Let us show
ourselves worthy of our origin, determined to sustain and support the blesseJ
privileges bequeathed by them to us. The moment we render up one tittle i.t
the sacred constitution under which we were bom, and which cost so much to
obtain, and permit a small and corrupt minority to prescribe, we lose oiii-
caste, and our boasted institution will become the laughing-stock of tlu'
world. I have much confidence in the virtue and integrity of our brotlicis
of the interior, that they will do what is right, and that in time. The blesstil
influences once enjoyed by them and us at our Atlantic homes may be ftlt
iind enjoyed throughout our Pacific homes, humbly trusting that the day is
not far distant when we may pass from the nortli to the south, from the e:ist
to the west of our western possessions without fear or danger, and behold in
every man a brother. CaiTy with us, brethren, the holy objects we have in
view, and rest assui-ed that erelong the mountains of the Sierra Nevada and
the valleys will I'^'come redolent with charms which will so much cudeai

PAYRAN SOARS ALOFT.

401

from
with

)f till!

apart

iiitteft
luencu
I give

;, 1851.

I Cominit-
nds, I eii-
er it with
je of their
g\\ placfs,
sh justi('(^
0 secure in
)k into till'
ce, to diai^
in, who by
itriiie, that
never tin
prucleiiee
Ir into your
Inor to til''
I carry your
(no all iui-
ht all cor
itto of our
It us show
[he blessLil
,e tittle ot
lo much to
lose our
ick of tho
broth*.: i>
le blessid
[ay be ftll
;he day i^
the eiist
[behold in
have iu
[vada iiiiil
h eudcar

them to us that we will not separate or leave them until wo shall bo called to
mingle our clay with that of our loved and atloptcd country.

"With deep consideration of respect and cstocm, gentlemen, in the name
(if my colleagues I subscribe myself,

"Your obedient servant,

"S. J. Pa\ti.vn,
"President Executive Committee,"

Near Grass Valley in May, 1857, on a hill who^e
side toward the setting sun was sprinkled Vviih log
cabins and shingle shanties, in a pine forest where the
.stumps of felled trees marked the progress of civiliza-
tion, a band of rough, bushy-headed men, in felt hats,
flannel shirts, and long boots, were gathered in council.
After appointing by acclamation one to preside, a
speaker mounted a stump to explain the object of the
meeting: "Certain men charged with having stolen
a bag of gold dust from a store in their town are now
iu the custody of the sheriff and are about to be com-
mitted to the Marysville prison for trial." A derisive
laugh by the listeners, subsiding into a growl, folio \ved
this remark. "Shall men suspected of crime be per-
mitted to slip from our fingers and gain their liberty
through process of law?" Those present manifested
their dissent. " Then let a committee be appointed to
move in the matter; let one of their number act as
sheriff, who with a chosen posse shall bring these
])risoners before us."

This was done. The committee was appointed by
the president, who on these occasions can carry the
company about where he chooses; a massive, sym-
metrical figure, with broad brow and intelligent eye,
a splendid specimen of a man — an American miner,
iit for an American senator — stepped forth in answer
to his name and immediately started on his mission.

The people's sheriff confronts the law's sheriff and
demands the men. The law's sheriff resists as in
duty bound; indeed he mildly blusters, whereat the
people's sheriff smiles and likes him none the less for
that. With the prisoners the people's sheriff reports

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIOILiVNCE.

■'^t

that tlic authorities opposing liim were finally over-
come by su[)erior numbers; and all present inwardly
declare the authorities good I'ellows, who know so well
how gently to oppose the people's will, and then and
there resolve that they shall be reelected.

A space is now cleared and the prisoners arc seated
on the ground in the ring thus made, vith thoir cap-
tors still standing over them. A court is formed, thr
president of the meeting acting as chief judge, and
the committee before mentioned as a jury. Counsel
arc nominated lor either side, who are paid by vohm-
tary contributions one hundred dollars each for their
services. There are present officers of the law, who
enter their protest, which is as idle wind, and seat
themselves and socially enjoy the occasion as uiiin
terested spectators. An old man rises, and with gray
head uncovered plainly tells the people they are doiiii^
wrong. The speaker is listened to respectfully, almost
reverently, and then the work goes on.

Witnesses for and against the prisoners arc brought
forward. The trial lasts two days ; the prisoners ai'c
found guilty. Then one of them rises from tlu;
groiuid and confesses tlio crime. Having lost his last,
dollar at the monte table, he says, he drank to drown
thought; and while intoxicated that man — pointing
to one of his fellows still lyin*. in the ground — tempte( I
him to rob the trader's box. Tliis the other stoutly
denies; but when the sentence is fixed at thirty-nine
lashes he offers to discover to them the money if they
will remit the sentence. Part of the punishment the
jury will remit on the conditions named, but not the
whole of it; and so a compromise is eflfected.

It rains next morning, and the wind blows cold for
spring; yet the people's burly big-brained sheriff leads
out the prisoners, strips them to the waist, tics them
to a tree, scourges them, then casts them loose.
Fainting they fall to the ground, curled by the whip-
ping, sick, and moaning. They were tender thieves,
or else the blows were exceptionally heavy. One,

i I

TRUCKEE AND VICINITY.

4G3

who had neglected to negotiate a mitigation of liis
])enalty, dies. The others crawl away, no one knows
wliither.

In every Californian town not having died a natural
(Iwitli there are always a score or two of stinliig
Imsiness men of moral worth and substance. These
are the nuclei of country committees of vigihuice.
These best men are usually supported by a loss influ-
ential elass, but five or ten of the kind lirst mentioned
are the life of every movement.

Truckee in 1873 was one of the li^•eliL^st towns in
California. The new overland railway brought i » it
money, merchandise, and activity; but it also brought
the bad element common to new prosperous I'^calitics.
The sjfood men were thinking seriously of 1 acliuL'' to
drive out the bad when a strange incident occtu'ud
which rel' ■ ■ \ the town on the distant of tw^ of its
worst characters. Jack White and Andy Futlgett
hud quarrelled. Meeting one day upon the street
each emptied the chambers of his navy revolver into
th(j body of the other. Both died.

This spontaneous combustion of crime was a happy
circumstance and a wholesome warning. For a time
peace reigned at Truckee. But by November, 1874,
villainy became unbearable, and the substantial citi-
zens felt obliged to resolve themselves into a Com-
uiittee of Vigilance. This they did, with 'GOl' as
their sanguinary symbol. Orders to leave were issued
and for the most part obeyed. Two, however, a man
and a woman. Bob jNIellon and Carrie Prior, «//a.s'
S[)iing Chicken, refused to quit the town. Mellon
used to boast of having fought a duel in San Fran-
cisco with bowie-knives, Spanish fashion, the left arms
of the combatants being bound together. The fair
Carrie's hand was not unstained with human blood,
and many men had been foolish enough to cut and
shoot each other for her vile sake. P ">b and Carrie
must be made to go; so ore day orders were issued

404

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

■i :

i: J

for the vigilanio to meet at midnight. Foremost
in energy and respectabiHty among the citizens of
Truekee was D. B. Frink, a prominent member of the
Committee. Writing C. F. McGlashen on that day
he says : " The vigilants have business on their
hands to-night. If resistance is offered, blood may be
shed." It was understood that the work in hand was
serious.

Masked in black cloth, covering head, shoulders,
and breast, with coats turned inside out, the small
men padded to look large, and the large men, con-
tracting their breath and stature so as to appear
diminutive, the society of 601 met in the principal
hall. They were well armed with concealed knives,
pistols, and quiet determination. Carrie felt the
approaching affray instinctively. She said they might
come on, that in Hayward's house, a place of bad
repute situated on a back street, would be forty armed
men to protect her. Mellon swore he would not bo
taken alive, and that he could kill at least a dozen
vigilants before they could kill him.

When all was ready, silently the masked men left
the hall, passed through a saloon, and surrounded
Hayward's house. Four took their station at the
back door. Thirty entered the front door, and de-
manded of Hayward the surrender of the house. Xo
opposition was made. Two or three drunken strag-
glers found in the bar-room were permitted to go
their winding way. Hayward was then ordered to

• open the door to every room. Closely at his heels
followed the masked party. After examining the first

' floor they all proceeded through a narroAv hall to tlio
stairway, Hayward being in front carrjnng a liglit.
The threats of Carrie and Mellon had led the party
to expect a certain attack, and their nerves were now
stretched to their utmost tension.

Suddenly through a brc ken panel of the back door,
wliich opened into the hall, a pistol was thrust,
whose glittering barrel covered the wJiole line of

I: f

MOKELUMNE HILL.

463

most
iS of
f the
b day
their
ay be
1 was

ilders,

small
1, con-
ippear
incipal
inives,
It the
• might
of bad

armed

not be
dozen

len left

lounded

at the

ind do-

e. No
strag-
to go
ired to
Is heels
he first
to the
light.
: party
L-e now

door,
thrust ,
line of

vigilants. It was black darkness without, and as the
vigilants were momentarily expecting attack there
was no time to be lost ; so that almost simultaneously
with the appearance of the pistol-barrel shots were
tired from behind. Hayward and one of the men at
the back door fell dead. The search was continued;
the town was cleared of its bad charactei's; but the
result of the night's work sent a thrill of horror
through the community, never to be forgotten, when
it was learned next morning that it was the honored
and beloved Frink who was thus unintentionally killed
by one of his own comrades.

At Mokelumne Hill when on the night of Jul}^ 3,
1851, John Nelson entered the house of one Hall and
shot him. The principle of vigilance was there, the
law assisting, though the miners faintly comprehended
the meanino- of the term or its true sio-nificanco.
However, all believing it desirable and right, the
legal judge and the miners en masse constituted the
Lcjurt, and at the close of the trial the judge did not
scruple to ask of the crowd its verdict. About that
time a case occurred at Yreka where a mob of miners
jittempted to take a sheriff's dcput}' from the jaiL
I'lie citizens arose, armed themselves, and entered and
ilei'ouded the prison.

()u the streets of Mokelumne Hill a fatal assault
was made the following Christmas. A man named
Jaines Campbell mounted a mule belonging to a
Chilean, and was riding off, when a friend of its
owner, one Naides, stopped him and remonstrated
ill a quiet way, receiving in answer a blow from
the bully, quickly followed by a knife-thrust in th(3
Chilean's side, which caused immediate death, but
not, however, until he had thrown his knife at Cam[t-
boll, which, passing through the air a distance of ten
yards, stuck in the wall of the Empire House. Camp-
bell took refuge in a miner's cabin, but was pursued
by Chileans, who fired several shots, wounding a

Top. TiUB., Vol. I. 30

466

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

III

* i-

■4 f

iiuinbcr of by-staudcrs The crowd arrested Camp-
boll, gave him a hurried trial, and pronounced him
guilty of murder; but by a vote of the crowd he was
to be delivered to the civil authorities. As the guard
was about "'.-^ remove him to the custody of the offi-
cers, another motion was made, this time to liberate
him, and he was released. He was afterward arrestutl
by the authorities, but escaped, when the people in
tlicir indiixnation formed a viijilance committee, de-
tormined to see justice done.

This Committee on the 30th of March, 1852, caught
a Mexican cutting oj^en tents and stealing gold dust,
and thus arcfued: If handed over to the authorities
lie might, perhaps, be committed to the Jackson jail,
where if he remained twenty-four hours it would be
because he liked the accommodations and had no fear
of being convicted; if whipped and turned loose, it
was known from his previous bad character and vicious
})rf)ponsities that he would again resort to the same
course; it was known that he had served several
months in the chain-ffano; at San Francisco ; if hanj^cd,
there would be one thief the less, and an awful warn-
ing thus given to others guilty of like offences. So
sentence of death was passed upon the man. Carlos
I']slaves, for such was his name, received information
<).' these proceedings with the utmost indifference.
,l>eing told that his execution would not take place
until the following day, he requested a good bed, some
good brandy, a good breakfast, and a priest, all of
which were given him. The hour arrived, he lit a
cigar, marched quietly to the place of execution, coolly
talked with the people, confessed his crimes, and was
launched into eternity. Within a month thereafter
a murderer was executed by the same Committee.

A man arrested for murder in June, 1852, was ex-
amined by the justice at Jackson and committed foi'
trial at the next term of the district court. Tlu;
Vigilance Committee had offered .^300 for his ap-
jtrehension, and having secured his arrest they wer(^

MARIPOSA AXI) SOXORA.

487

willing' the law should take its course, meanwhile
keeping' a sharp eye upon it that it should not be
subverted. This did not satisfy certain of the people,
who took the prisoner from jail and hanged him.
This is a fair illustration of the difference between
a vijjilance committee and a mob. Here in this
town of Jackson were three several antaaconistic
powers laboring to secure the same end — a I'egulaily
constituted court of justice, a regularly organized
committee (^f vigilance, and a passionate, revengeful,
irresponsible mob. The Vigilance Committee of
^lokelumne Hill, after having from an imperative
sense of duty executed one criminal, and seeing the
officers of the law sternly determined to do their duty,
reorganized for the sole purpose of assisting legally
constituted tribunals in the administration of justice.

A vigilance committee '/as foi'iied at IMariposa
after the funeral of an old man had taken place wlioso
violent death in March, 185-1, had been caused by
Thomas Cowan, a gambler. The Committee was com-
posed of fifty of the most respected citizens, who de-
termined that the prisoner should have justice shown
him. A mob collected and protested that they would
break the jail and hang Cowan; but the Vigilance
Committee remonstrated and promised that the right
should be maintained. A special grand jury found a
true bill against Cowan, and the Committee remained
in session until the close of the trial.

The Sonora Vigilance Committee was composed of
as good a set of fellows as ever strangled horse-thief
They were diligent in search and terril)le in sentences,
though somewhat mild in their executions. Drink, it
is said, brings to the surface the natural qualities of
the man. It intensifies momentary feeling likewise.
The mild it mellows and the vindictive it makes makes
more hateful. As few country connnittees of vigil-
auce long managed their business with parched throats.

468

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGIL^iXCE.

we may infer that the bark of the Sonora Committee
was sometimes worse than its bite.

Of its Vigilance Committee the Sonora Herald of
July, 1851, thus speaks:

"Investigations of the most important character have been made, and
could we tell the good people of this community all that we have learned
tliey would approve even more heartily than now of the organization. It ia
just what the necessities of the case require. Rascals having been driven by
scores out of San Francisco, have taken refuge hero in the mountains, nnd
were there no vigilance connnittees to telegraph to each other and dcscril le
the outlaws they would commit a thousand depredations before our rcguhir
citizens M'ould know anything about their character. They arc now, however,
under the special observation of an argus-eyed police, so numerous and so
admirably organized that more criminals can bo detected in a week than by
the ordinary officers of the law in a month. It is gratifying to know that the
whole eonnnunity have the fullest confidenoo in this Committee. Indeed we
kno«' not how it could be otherwise. Composed as it is of the most orderly,
moral, and intelligent citizens in the place, not a few in number, but nearly
the entile body, nu ii against whom no one has ever dared to whisper a re-
proach, wlio have been marked by deeds of charity and mercy, and not by
bloody acts of so-called heroism, every one feels and knows that such a bculy
of men will do only what is right, Tlicy are cool and determined, and imittd
as one man. The good of society and the paramount law of self-preservation
have determined the path of duty, and they are men who never flinch \\ heie
duty calls tliLiU to act."

So busy were the Sonora Vin'ilance Committee f >/
a season that their whipped an J banished averajje;'
one a day. They had a. brand made by a blacksmith,
H. T., which they burned into the llesli of the hip or
cheek, accordinn' to the heinousncss of the olfenci .
Beside brandinL;', the Sonora Committee seemed t'>
possess a iancv for shavinij heads or half heads. The\
had a bad element to deal with. On the 15th of
Jidy a ^Mexican was tried before them for stealinL;'
a horse. Most committees would have hansfed him
instantly. The man was large, muscular, and capable
of much endurance; an ordinary whipping would be
no more to him than the switching of a big boy by
the school-mistress. The Committee thought it no
more than right for them to give according to the
prisoner's ability to receive. A hundred and fifty

SEVERITY AND MODERATION.

lashes and H. T. to be branded on the cheek was the
verdict. The sentence, though thcv thousrht it severe,
seemed necessary. At all events they might so far
favor the culprit as to administer it in homoeopathic
doses. So at the expiration of every twenty- five
blows they permitted the recipient to rest; and finally,
on his promising to quit the country, they remitted
the branding. At another time, after administering
one hundred and fifty lashes each to three lujrse-
thieves and then shaving their heads, they collected
a purse for them, that they might be delivered from
temptation.

On the 16th of September the Committee tried
and convicted a Sydney convict for Iiorse-stealing.
The condemned was sentenced to receive on the
bare back one hundred lashes and to have one half
of the head shaved. The tender-hearted miners,
however, paused at the seventy-fifth blow and let
the suiferer loose. Shortlv before the Connnittee in-
llicted sevontv-five lashes and shaved tlie head of a
^Mexican for stealing a six-shooter.

The Sonora Herald about this time, speaking
of the arrests by this tribunal and the punishment of
hishing, says:

' ' Wc believe these arc the first cases before the Committee for a loug
time; not that the dimiimtion of crime is so great but tluit the courts
under the new criminal organization are fast superseding the want of a
\ igilance association. Rogues arc now brought up and meet with speedy
trials; justice is no longer tardy in its operations. Wo hope, now that this
d'sirable change in the administration ''f law has been brought about, that
the Committee will act as an adjunct to the authorities in the detection of
crime, and h i. ,>ver all cases to the courts for i)unishment. "

At Tim's Garden, one mile from Columbia, in
October, an honest old miner named Crowning was
robbed of hard-earned gold dust to the amount
«>f $600. He had left it in the pocket of a coat
wiiich he had thrown down beside his claim when he
wont to work in the morning, and at noon on look-
ing for his coat it was missing. Suspicion fell on one

470

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

i->.

W. E. Conklinif, who had boon soon hoveriiif; about
the spot during the forenoon. Search was made, and
the man found at a niontc table with some of the
dust still in his possession. Ho was only speculating
with the funds of another, and would have i)aid it
back if successful. Ho was tried by the Vigilance
Committee of the place and given seventy-five lashes.
Very moderate for Columbia in the year 1851.

In the summer of 1858 the town of Visalia stood
upon the frontier, somewhat remote from the more
settled portions of California. Population was sparse,
the courts poorly organized, and the groator part of
the inhabitants wild and lawless. Some of tliem were
followers of the Mormon prophet; others were emi-
grants from the confines of civilization. There was
not a jail in Tulare county. A rough shanty in an
oak opening constituted the court-house. In the
centre of the shanty, whose floor was the solid
earth, was the stump of a large oak tree, to which
was attached a ring-bolt. TJiis stump and ring-
bolt was the county prison; for to it felons were
chained and a guard placed over them. On the 2~th
of July Sherifi' Poindexter arrested one William C.
Deput}', called by some a bad character, on complaint
of his nephew, J. D. Stapleford, who alleged that
Deputy had defraudetl him of lands and moneys
amounting to the value of $30,000 or $40,000. Tlu'
sheriff placed Deputy in the jail and chained him
to the stump, a treatment imposed upon all prisoners
charged with a state prison offence. Deputy was an
old man, and because he was a Mormon all the more
people called him an unprincipled villain, and he was
shunned and detested in the community. They said
he held in his possession at the time of his arrest, as
a confidential trust, property belonging to his nephe\\ ,
Stapleford, which he now persistently refused to recon
vey. A lawyer was employed to compel the man to
disgorge the funds, but Deputy had concealed his

i-i

A DISGRACEFUL BUSIXESS.

471

tracks with such skill as to defy detection and defeat
legal proceedings. Stapleford was duped; the law-
could not help him to obtain restitution; nothing
would avail but to compel the man to sign over his
ill-gotten gains. He stated his grievances to his
friends, and enlisted the sympathy of the community.
They k;iew of but one way to adjust the difficulty,
and in the thinly settled frontier counties it was
a method frequently employed. They would form a
vigilance committee, and would compel the old man
to sign the papers. They believed Stapleford to be
right, and they would help him to that justice which
the law could not give; and yet had not Deputy l»een
a Mormon I doubt if such liigh-handed proceeihngs
would have been popular in a matter of property only.
Nevertheless the so-called Vigilance Committee were
impatient for the night, ju'ocUictive, as they antici-
[)ated, of a triumph of justice and right. To accom-
plish their })urpose the best citizens sometimes united
with the worst. ^len of intelligence and probity
were not unfrequently overawed and kept in circum-
scription by the turbulent and irresistible element
which so largely predominated in Visalia. But now
their cause was made a common one, and there was
not a single individual who opposed the plan made
known to the assembled crowd that <;athered and dv-
termined upon action. That night between eleven
and twelve o'clock they marched to tlie court-house,
where they found Deputy guarded by two armed men,
who presented but a slight obst.ielo to tlie pursuance
of their object. They entered the room, took Deputy
from the bench upon which he was lying, and led him
out to the northern section of the town, where lie was
placed beneath a tree, from which a rope was already
swinging. The rope was then adjusted about his neck,
and he was informed that his life would be forfeited
unless he complied with their demands in regard to
Stapleford's property. This he refused to do. Two
or three times he was swung in the air and lowered,

I'M

472

COUNTRY CO\DnTTEES OF VIGILANCE.

until finally he promised to do what was required,
provided that he should be released from custody and
from the charge of felony then pending against him.
This was granted, when he made full confession,
promised restitution, and gave account of what he held.
He was then taken back to the room and again chained,
to await until morning the appearance of the lawyer.s.
The sheriff then placed a strong armed force about
the prison to prevent furtlier violence, and remained
with Deputy throughout the following day. The next
morning a notary was summoned, who drew up a deed,
and asked Deputy if he cheerfully and willingly would
sign the paper. There were several persons present
who witnessed the proceedings, among others one
Douglass, a lawy -r called a man of rectitude. He
talked with Deputy in a friendly way, advising him
to sign the paper, which he did, and whicli Douglass
attested. The acknowled<?ment was then taken bv
the notarv, and his seal affixed. Not the slischtest
coercion was used, it was claimed, the old man readily
assenting to whatever was required. Deputy was
then released, and all charges made against him with-
drawn. Immediately upon his release Deputy went
to San Bernardino, and there appealed to the courts,
endeavoring to be reinstated in possession, but was
unsuccessful in his application.

The Ku Klux Klan organization, which achieved
such prominence in the southern states, seems to have
occasionally cropped out on the Pacific coast. On thr
25th of August, 1868, the body of B. S. Templeton
of Visalia was found hanging from a tree on the banks
of the Tule River, about thirty miles from his home.
The hanging was charged to the Ku Klux Klan. At
the same time mention is made of depredations caused
by a band under this name in Sam Valley, Jackson
county, Oregon. Their operations seemed confined
to poisoning cows, horses, and other live-stock, and to
warning one or two citizens.

VISALIA AND BAKERSFIELD.

473

To cut short the trickeries of law by means of
which the brothers Tlionias and WilHam Yoakum liacl
escaped punishment for one murder, and seemed b}-
new trials, change of venue, and other court diver-
tisemcnts about to clear themselves from unotlnir,
seventy -five of the people of Bakersfield — some say
forty — on the 28t]i of May, 1878, forced open the jail
door, covered the officers with their guns, entered the
cells of the Yoakunis, and hanged them there. There
was much shooting in this affair, one of the jirisoners
receiving five balls before he was hanged, and several
of the vigilants were wounded, unintentionally, by
their associates. Though chained to the bottom of
their cells, the Yoakums fought desperately before
yielding. Two men, William Johnson and Hamilton
.1, Tucker, had Leen their victims, killed more tlian a
month previous on account of a quarrel growing out
of mining matters.

On the 24th of December, 1872, Charles Allen,
proprietor of a saloon in Visalia, was shot by on(,'
James McCrory, between whom and himself an in-
timate friendship had apparently existed, Allen having
shown McCrory every kindness, even to giving liim
8100 a few hours previous to his death. There was
not the slightest provocation for the murder. Allen
asked McCrory what he and another man were quar-
relling about, when McCrory replied, " I would just
as soon shoot you as anybody else!" and immediate^
l(j\-elled at him the revolvers which he lield in each
hand. Allen implored him, " For God's sake, don't
slioot me! i . i unarmed!" but McCroiy fired several
shots, until assured of his victim's death. McCrory
was arrested by the sheriff and lodged in jail. He
was a desperate character, and although u[ton several
trials for murder convincing proof had been presented,
lio had always been acquitted. The people were now
unwilling to trust again to the law, and on the fol-
lowing morning the Vigilance Committee entered the
jail and forced McCrory to his place of execution, a

\ni

474

COUXTRY COMmXTEES OF VIGILANCE.

bridge in the vicinity. Before the crowd dis})crsed a
collection was made to defray the expenses of the
burial. During the winter of 1873-4 a new Vigilance
Connuittec was orwinized at Visalia for Tulare and
adjoining counties. Owing to the watchfulness exer-
cised by the inhabitants of the coast counties, liordes
of highwaymen, horse-thieves, and cutthroats, were
driven back into the Tulare region, which led to active
measures by the people of that vicinity. Following
this movement, many Mexicans, and indeed all of
every nationality who could not satisfactorily account
f(tr themselves and the method of their living, wore
directed to go, lest worse should befall them.

Ycry prompt to form and ver^' efficient was the
Santa ( lara Vigilance Committee, organized to act in
concert with the Committee of San Francisco. Here-
with I give a copy of proceedings at their lirst
meeting :

"At a meeting of the citizens of Santa Clara, held pursuant to publii;
iiotior, !Mr Joel Cliiyton was called to the chair, and Mr II. Bucknor appointed
Becrotary. Mr Piersun addressed the meeting, and statea the object to he to
take: iiioasiircs to act in concert with and approve the proceedings of the
Vigilance Committee of the eiti;:cns of Si;n Francisco, and olVercd the follow-
ing resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

" ' li't'siilreil, thiit we deeply sympathize with the citizens of San Franciscn
in their los.ses sustained by the late (ires ; that as wo believe the late disastrous
fjren tu have been the work of a regular band of thieves and iuccniliaries too
fiendish and dangerous to bo suffered to prowl about Sau I'^'aneisco : that as
M'e believe our interests arc identified with Lhe sustaining of tiiat city, we
■will heartily second and assist the citizens to detect, bring to justice, and
puniah the scoundrels that infest that city; thiit we considei' the hanging ol
the notorious burglar and thief .lenkins entirely jiistiliable, and in our
opinion it is the shortest and only way to save the lives and property of
citizens ; that we hereby call upon the Vigilance Committee of .San Francisco
to transmit to the Vigilance Committee of this place descriptions of suspccti.'d
desperadoes whenever they sliall hereafter leave that vicinity ; that we call
upon the press of Sau Francisco to publish these resolutions, and assure their
citizens tliat if a vigorous cfTort should be made to free themselves from tlir
pest we will come to their assistance en mastc if necessary. '

" Mr Gates then moved that those present form themselves into a Vigil-
ance Committee, which motion was unanimously adopted, and the chairman,
Mr Clayton, elected president of such committee, and Mr Gates secretary.

■■■r S,:

SANTA CLARA AND SAN JOSl^:

475

On motion of Mr Gates a committee of five, consisting of Mr Picrson, Captain
Hush, Mr Buckncr, Colonel Davis, and Mr Buflu'u, were appointed to draft
resolutions and rules to govern tlio action of the Vigilanu(! Committee; whort!-
upon the meeting adjourned to Timrsday evening, the 'JOtli in.st.

"JoKL Clayton, Chairman.
"R. B. Bi'CKNEU, Serntary.

"Santa Clam, June 25, lSr>l."

At a meeting licld a few days afterward constitu-
tion and by-laws w-erc ado[)te(l, and the organization
was completed. Scarcely a singlt' citizen lefusi'd to
join the association. One of their first acts was no
less nnicjne than energetic. A notorious character was
arrested for theft by the civil authorities and put under
honds to await his trial. The Vigilance Connnitt.ee
bailed him out, gave him a thorough Hogging, and tlien
returned him to the custody of the law.

At San dose in October, 18;")!, two Hispano-Cali-
fornians, father and son, arrested for cattle-stealing,
were tried, convicted, and sentenced by a peo[)li!'s
jui-y to receive twenty-six lashes each. The old
man's head wiir white and his bodv bent with a-jfe;
the son was a manly f(>ll(»w, straight as a forest tree,
athletic, in the full vigor of manhood, with a bold
front and an unilinching eye. When judgment was
})ronounccd he rose to his feet and begged one boon
of his indcrcs. For himself he asked notliin^ -Init
that old man, his father: surely, if tlioy were sons
thcMnselves, and not bastards, they would let him take
the whole punishment, and suffer in tlie old man's
stead. The proposition of the son was considered by
the Committee, and a resolution introduced that the
sentence of the father should Uv, remitted, and that
lie should be handed over to the authorities. Nor
would the Committee take advantage of the son's
]iroposal to augment his sentence. The trial of the
tiither in court, made with more deliberation and a
fuller cognizance of facts, revealed the truth that his
sentence had been disproportioned to liis crime, and
he was released with only a fine of five dollars.

}?<r

470

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VTOILAXCE.

It was an oxtrcmcly difficult, matter for the native
population of California to understand that it was
very wrong to steal horses. That is one reason why
so severe a penalty was inflicted for this crime. In
llieir early times they had been accustomed to catcli
and sad<lle almost any horse running at large. It was
the thing to do to return the horse or to leave another
in its stead, but the owners of ranclios were not often
jiarticular about a horse or two more or less. Said
J3errasio Berryessa, when about to be executed by
the Vigilance Committee of San Josd July 21, 1854,
for stealing horses, "My countrymen, you must all
leave here; it is no longer a tit place for you I"

In the spring of 1850 Mariano Hernandez, a Mexi-
can horse-thief and highwayman, was captured and
confined in San Jose jail. His arrest was made on the
suspicion that he had murdered a man named John
Foster, who had lived in one of the upper counties,
nnd had robbed him of twenty thousand d(jllars. A
^Ir Savage had come to San Jose for the purpose
of having Hernandez taken for trial to the county
where the murder had been committed. Savage was
a neighbor of Foster, and had deposited money with
him, which was lost by the robbery. Before Hernan-
dez could be removed he must be brought before the
judge, and while on the way he escaped. Savage was
greatly incensed, and openly accused the sheriff and
the judge of having accepted money from the jjrisoncr
as a bribe to release him. The people talked of
hantjino' the o^cials. Savage threatened if somethinsjf
was not done le would lead a band of armed Indians
against the t vn. In the mean time Hernandez was
pursuing his \ lainous course in other sections of the
country, but i Monterey was again arrested. He
was sentenced t be hanged, and narrowly escaped with
his life ; he wai suspended from a tree, but the rope
broke, and that circumstance, with the timely inter-
cession of a priest, secured his pardon. However, the

S^VNT.\ CRUZ AND MONTERKY.

477

icpriovc served hut little purpose, for at Santa Crux,
he was seized by the Vinfihiiice Committee for some
criniiiial act, and was hunted by them on the 20th
of July, 1852.

On the next ni,i;ht this same Committee in Santa
Cruz hanged anotluT ^Mexican. He was taken from
jail, where he was awaiting his trial for horse-stealing.
The ])risonc;r made a confession just previous to liis
(.'xecution in which ho imjillcated others of his country-
nicu. Search was inunethately made for them. One
was captured — a hardened wretch, who boasted of
having killed several Americans. His trial and execu-
tion (piickly followed his arro«t. He exhibited uo
fear, walking with a fl'-m step to the gallows.

Oil the I Ith of January, 185;3, the V^igilance Coni-
uiittee of Santa Cruz ordered that three thieves should
receive from twenty to fifty lashes, and be banished
the town, and that should they return it would l»e
under j)enalty of death.

It was neither a profitable nor pleasing position,
that of member of the ^Monterey Vigilance Com-
mittee, for when they hanged a villain twenty other
\illains narrowly watched tlie hangman, swearing
vengeance. ]\[()re than one member of this associa-
tion in 18.")G died out of his bed. ]Murder liad become
so bold, however, that there was no hel[) for it. If
we may cretlit D. 11. Ashley, subsequently United
States Senator from Nevada, by actual count there
had been connnitted in and round Monlerev durinix
tliree years sixt3'-three murders, without one judicial
execution. Bullets ilew from town-houses and solitary
thickets. Mail riders were shot so frequently that
for once in the history of our country the service

Went bcsfGfmix.

In the early part of February, 1858, there lay in
the ja" at Monterey, under sentence of death, a Span-
iard named Anastasia, who had been convicted of one
nuirder and had confessed to another. The crime for
which he was imprisoned was the killing of an old

478

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

I:
r

jr, r

man, whoso cabin he had feloniously entered with an
Indian. The old man was a Mexican sheep-herder in
Chalama Valley, Fresno county, and had in his pos-
session one hundred dollars, for which he was mur-
dered, being shot twelve times and his skull broken.
A jury, composed equally of Americans and Mexicans,
condemned Anastasi to be hanged on the 12th of
February ; but two days before that time a document
was received by the sheriff from Governor Weller
granting a respite from death for several days to one
Anastasi Jesus. As Josd Anastasi was the only
person in the Monterey jail under sentence of death,
the respite was clearly intended for him; at least such
was the conclusion of the sheriff. The under-sheriff,
however, incited and sustained by a large number of
the most inhuential inhabitants, took a different view
of the matter, arguing that the misnomer in the re-
prieve was fatal to its ler^ality, and that unless the
sentence of death should l»o executed on Jose Anas-
tasi on the day fixed he probably would escape
punishment altogether. The under-sheriff therefore
assumed the responsibility of proceeding with the
execution, and Anastasi was duly hanged. Governor
Weller was greatly incensed, and when the under-
sheriff wrote him on the subject the governor re-
sponded in an angry and undignified communication,
denouncing the course of the deputy in the most
violent terms. The under-sheriff was sustained by
the citizens, by whom the whole course of the gov-
ernor was strongly conde.nned. They felt that Josd
Anastasi was legally convicted and under sentence
of death; he had confessed not only the commission
of the murder for which he had been tried, but also
another one; there was a question as to the legality
of the reprieve, there was none as to the legality or
justice of the sentence; and lastly, had the day of
execution passed, pursuant to a document that was
null and void, there were serious doubts as to whether
the prisoner could ever be executed under that con-

MATTHEW RILEY.

470

viction, and the blunder might result in turning a
desperate criminal loose upon society. This is called
the first legal execution in Monterey county under
American rule, and in the minds of many there re-
mained the question whethci* this was legal.
Says the Pajaro Times of February 13, 18G4:

' ' The people of Monterey county are in earnest about ridding themselves of
the thieves and cutthroats who infest that section of tlie country. Last week
iu Nati\'idad the citizens formed themselves into a vigilance committee and
tried three CalLfomians — two brothers named Lopez and one man whose name
we did not learn. One of the brothers and lie of the unknown name were
foimd guilty of various robberies and depredations, and on Monday last were
l)ublicly whipped and sent to jail. The elder of the Lopez brothers was ad-
jiiilged guilty of murder and forthwith hanged. Beside several other murders
charged against Lopez, he killed a Chilean some months since for an old
s;iddle and sack of barley. The whole family is said to be of a wicked nature.
The father was sentenced to death and hanged some years since in this county. "

There were many cases illustrating how the spirit
of self-government wavt-red between vigilance and
inobocracy. On the desert border of southern Califor-
nia lived Matthew Riley, who along in the early fifties
became quite famous as a leader of men and a manipu-
lator of power. Sometimes the men were not all of
the best, and the power — well, while the quality of it
was not equal in purity and directness to that engen-
dered by steam or eb^ctricity, it was no whit below
what is manufactured to-da'^ for our governors and
presidents by thick-headed Africans and unwashed
Europeans. It is scarcely fair to charge all wrong-
doing to the devil, and credit all right-doing to a
higher power, because in the so-called special province
of the latter, wo find poorly done, or left undone, mat-
ters of which omnipotence can scarcely be proud.

Matthew Riley was about five feet seven inches in
height, compactly built, broad-shouldered, with flesh
as solid as lead. He knew how to command men,
whether in the direction of business or fighting. To
the former he brought a fair education and average
ability, which secured him a moderate fortune; as

J^S

480

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

auxiliary to the latter he had a score or two of men
of active and muscular organisms always at his call,
with no end of political and office-seeking backers.
Thus it was that in any canon or at any cross-roads,
no less than in court or camp, Mat could hold a Lib-
erty Fair, or play a game of Eternal Justice, on short
notice.

By attending closely to his duties and privileges as
a favored citizen of a thrice favored republic, as every
true man, every intelligent and progressive lover of
freedom, is bound to do, he had always on hand read}^
for immediate use a large store of power, social, polit-
ical, judicial, ecclesiastical, mechanical, or of whatso-
ever kind or quality which might at the moment be
in demand. Whosoever went wronjj Mat or his men
would set right; he who persisted in wrong -doing,
by Mat or his men was quite certain to have his nose
or neck twisted. What was ritjhtand what wronc:
— there was sometimes a question; but not often.
What priest, or politician, or merchant is there who
fails to lind right on the side of his bread that is but-
tered? Mat was a great judge. He was a judge of
men, a judge of morality, a judge of justice. His
followers were not all of them so clear-headed, and
several times brought themselves and their master
into tiouble. Tliev would sometimes find themselves
at the wrong end of a legal sequence, though as a
rule, like the wise and wily ones of the present dispen-
sation, they found law too great and good a thing to
be ignored or crushed. So Mat and his men, like any
other of tlie kings who stalk about over this confed-
eration— money kings, piety kings, political kings —
used law when it suited their purpose ; if it did not
they coolly kicked it out of the way — differing in their
way of doing it from our present legislators and jus-
tice-jugglers in this respect, that whereas these latter
are exceedingly sanctimonious in their worship of law,
are exceedingly circumspect in their position before the
law, taking care always to avoid the risk of prison walls

liJ

THE MISCHIET OF IT.

481

e of
His
and
ister

pen-
to
any
ifecl-

in their rascalities, Mat, >vlio made the men that made
the laws, could not understand why he should stand
on much ceremony with so cheap, unstable, weak,
flims}', and fickle a thing as law. And as for justice,
what and where is it, in earth, heaven, or hell ?

In due time the business of horse-stealing became
so bad thitt few artists cared to follow it. It was easy
enough to gather in stock, but difficult to dispose of
it. Mat and his men could smell a horse-thief miles
away, so tliat the most of the unhanged in that vi-
cinity cither reformed or moved away. They were
very efficient at any kind of detective work, five or
six of them being able at any time to accomplish more
in brniging criminals to justice, and in executing them,
than all the constables, sheriffs, lawyers, judges, and
jails in three counties. True, this boomerang of
equity and material morality sometimes flew back and
killed a man or two, once even striking the chief;
l>ut as a rule it was thrown true, and striking tlie
mark fairly brought down its victim without recoil.

It is a fact of which sensible, rifjlit-thinkinjj Amer-
icans can scarcely be proud, that our most worshipful
and highly prized machinery for guarding life and
property, for making men and women moral and keep-
ing them so, can so easily be outdone, a hundred-fold,
l>y a few commonplace men of practical ability. These
cumbersome contrivances, many of them relics of bar-
barism or of feudalism, are to a great extent mere
machines for defrauding the public, defeating the
right, and demoralizing natural and manly sentiments,
and all under the name of justice. For the advance-
ment of religion men used to commit the most heinous
crimes. For the advancement of education men now
gather each year a great fund, and after taking three
fourths of it to fill their pockets, the remainder, with
much chattering, like learned monkeys, they employ
in teaching children to follow in their footsteps. To
permit our children to grow up in ignorance, truly is
bad; but by daily example, if not indeed by precept.

Pop. Tbib., Vol. I. 81

488

COUNTRY COMmiTEES OF VIGILANCE.

to teach them dishonesty, and bring them up to bribery,
trickery, and the many phases and colors of modern
rascahty, is infinitely worse. There are many cities
and counties in this republic, where if a Mat Riley
and six men were always stationed, ready to seize and
hang any lawyer caught in perverting justice, any
judge swayed in his duty by fear, favor, or any social
or political desires, any legislator or member of a board
selling their vote or influence for coin, or any person
engaged in the rascalities of current affairs, would be
a great and most efficient blessing, a benefaction to
society superior to all courts, law-makings, and peni-
tentiaries. In the end, Mat Riley came to grief. It
may be he killed too many, or not enough; in any
event, were he now living he would have plenty
to do.

On Tuesday, the 23d of August, 1859, at midnight,
two men were executed in the woods of Santa Bar-
bara. They were Francisco Badillo, aged eighty, and
his son, fourteen years of age. Their horse-thieving
achievements were notorious, but the course pursued
by the mob was strongly censured. On the following
'day the coroner and jury proceeded to the spot where
the bodies were hanging and received the testimony
of Badillo's sons, eleven and thirteen years old. An
excited crowd of native Californians had gathered,
and threats of vengeance were muttered against the;
Americans. George Nidever, a crippled youth riding
by, was suddenly pointed out by the younger ot"
Badillo's boys as one of the murderers, when tlio
enraged law-abiders stabbed, shot, and clubbed tho
poor fellow until he lost consciousness. Several per-
sons were arrested for assaulting Nidever, but were
ncquitted, as were also George and John Nidever,
and others arrested on suspicion of the death of
Badillo.

The following report was made by the grand jury
to the court of sessions September 17, 1859:

SANTA BARBARA.

483

"In the case of the people of the state of California versu/t J. Xidever
and others, charged with murder, there were thirty witnesses sought for
and obtained in different parts of the county, and all the testimony that could
be brought to bear upon the case, cither directly or indirectly, was obtained.
There were such numbers of contradictions and alibia proven as rcndcrcl the
testimony in favor of the state entirely worthless ; consequently there was ' no
bill found.' In the cases of F. Sayba, J. Guticruz, Lugo and R. Zuriba,
charged with assaulting and shooting George Nidever, there were ' no bills
found.' Tlie positive evidence given in respect to two of those cases by
Russell Heath and James L. Ord was positively disputed in toto by the evi-
dence of Jo3i5 Dolores Garcia. The undersigned believe the testimony of
the first two witnesses to be true ; we also believe the testimony of the latter
to bo false. The persons who a little more than a year since robbed and mur-
dered the Basques on their way up the country would not have been punished
but for the people of San Luis Obispo, who summarily hanged them by the
necks. Cases of horse and cattle -stealing, almost without number, have
within the last five years been brought to the notice of our courts; yet in
almost every instance imprincipled petit juries could easily be drummed up
who would not hesitate in bringing a verdict of not guilty, though the offence
liad been so clearly proven that it did not admit of a single doubt. Even
those who seek ofiice, with now and then an exception, absolutely humiliate
and degrade themselves, either by lavish proniLscs to tlie corrupt, who hold
the influence, or by panderuig to a set of rullians. Our elections are a farce,
and an insult to common-sense ; scores of hombros, of all grades inid colors,
are brought in front of the polls, whose intenigence and education would not
comiiaro with the slaves of the southern states ; yet these same hombres re-
ceive sealed votes, either from the hands of the influential or their employes,
and without opening them or examining their contents put tlicm in the
ballot-box. Since the sitting of this grand jury the foreman has had his life
threatened by outside vile ruffians. In conclusion, we propose to allude to the
state of society as it here exists in connection with the execution of the
laws. In a republican government like ours, our system of jurisprudence is
established on the broad supposition that at least the majority of the people
arc notoriously honest, and always ready to maintain the supremacy and
majesty of the law, and to assist the courts in its execution. In most com-
munities such is the case. We deeply regret to be obliged to assert that in
this county it is widely different. We are of the unanimous opinion, so far
as this coimty is concerned, that the courts, in consequence of the notorious
bad characters that are frequently summoned and impanelled to servo as
petit jurors, are entirely powerless in punishing crime. Thieves and villains
of every grade have been from time to time upheld, respected, fostered, and
pampered by our influential citizens, and if need be, aidetl and assisted in
escaping from merited punishment due to their crimes. Characters similar
to those just named have frequently been seen sitting beside tlie wealthy and
influential in their carriages traversing our streets, or mounted on the richly
caparisoned steeds of these same persons. The virtuous and the prostitute,
the cattle-thief and the influential, have been too often seen mingling to-
gether at parties and Imlls. In fact it is with deep regret that we arc com-

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANC]!

pelled to publish the fact to tlie world that the ruling population make
little or no distinction as to the character of their associates ; if there is any
preference it is in favor of the vicious. Offences, thefts, and villainies in
defiance of the law, of every grade and char.cter, from the horse and cattle-
thief to the highway robber and midnight ■ssassin, have dwelt, to our knowl-
edge, for the last five years in our very midst. Whenever those crimes have
been perpetrated on the persons of honest, industrious, and good citizens, the
tranquillity of the public mind, so far as the iniling population was concerned,
would not be disturbed.

"Only three years since, an American by the name of Moore had quietly
settled in Montecito, had erected his humble cabin, and had industriously
engaged in fencing a field and sowing a crop in order to gain an honorable
support. He was basely murdered while asleep by having his throat cut
from ear to ear, and left to welter in his gore ; yet the tranquillity of the
ruling population was not in the least disturbed. Neither they nor their
officers apiwarcd to take the least interest m ferreting the perpetrators of
the crime and bringing them to justice; and had it not been for private
American citizens, who had him buried with their own means, so far as the
authorities are concerned he would have been left like a wild beast to rot
where he was murdered. One of the perpetrators of that crime has since been
hanged, not by the actions of our courts, to which he fled for protection for
other crimes, but by the sovereign people of 8an Luis Obispo. Previous to
his execution he confessed to that and a number of other heinous crimes. Wc
could go on from page to page and enumerate the evils under which wc
sufTor, sufTice it to say, good, iudependent, industrious, and honest citizens
arc not wanted here by the ruling powgrs. Could tliuy accomplish it, tlicy
would drive us from the country, unless wo would degrade ourselves by
pandering to their wishes, obeying their orders, and affiliating with their

ruffians.

"Cyrus Marshall,

"Foreman of Grand Jury.
"R. Forbush, A. M. Cameron, William Brick, G. Abadie, L. Loomis,
Juan Hill, John M. Haskell."

This report was published in the San Francisco
Herald, as the Santa Barbara papers refused it a place
in their columns. Seiious disturbances were constantly
occurring, and the law seemed powerless to protect
the rights of citizens. The Santa Bdrbara Gazette
says: "Law there was plenty, law-craft enough and
to spare, but organization none at all, save a shadow-
ing of that worst of all organizations, suggested by
the example of righteous Los Angeles and law-abiding
San Francisco, a Vigilance Committee. The sheriffalty
was vacant. The mayor had resigned, assigning as

SAN LUIS OBISPO.

485

his motive his incapacity to preserve order. No jus-
tice of the peace had qualified. A county judge re-
mained, fully determined to maintain the law; but
not a constable was there to execute a warrant. The
treasurer and county clerk alone stood over this uni-
versal wreck of unfilled office as fitting emblems of a
costly system of anarchy." At this juncture General
Clark was called upon to bring a small detachment of
troops with him to Santa Bdrbara, the people urging
that the mere appearance of the military would carry
sufficient moral suasion without resort to arms. The
re^juest was complied with and confidence restored.

In the absence of legal authorities a popular tri-
bunal was organized for the trial of one Sonoreno
in San Luis Obispo the 7th of July, 1851. Jose
Castro and W. C. Jones were elected judges, C.
Freeman secretary, and W. J. Graves prosecuting
attorney. It was agreed that one half the jury should
be native Californians and one half Americans. Thus
organized the tribunal proceeded to business.

The early days of San Luis Obispo show a busy
schedule of crime, and a running sketch of some of
the chief episodes of its history will no doubt prove
interesting and instructive to the reader :

In the fall of 1863 a band of eight or ten men
rode into town and made merry over the fact that
they had just murdered a pcdler near San Juan and
appropriated his goods. They were pursued, one of
them killed, several hanged, and the remaining three
01- four escaped. These were desperate times; not a
week passed but that the bodies of murdered men were
found by the roadside, and many a cattle-dealer from
the upper country met a secret and terrible fate in
that bloody land. Early in 1856 a man named George
Fearless came down from San Francisco with several
thousand dollars and went into the stock business
with a New Mexican named Jesus Luna, on a rancho
some fifty miles from town. After a few months

486

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

Fearless disappeared, and liis Mexican partner said
that he had gone to the states. Soon selling out
their property on the rancho, Luna moved to New
Mexico, and shortly after his departure the body ot
Fearless was found concealed on the place.

Now read the next incident, then put the two with
twenty other like deeds unrecorded, with niatteis
every day growing worse, and then say if vigilance
committees are wrong:

Two Frenchmen collected a band of cattle and
started north. They hired a native Californian named
Frolian as their vaquero; this man and Jack Powers
the gambler saw a large sum of money paid to tlie
Frenchmen. On Monday, the 30th of November, a
horse-race took place at Santa Margarita, twelve miles
from San Luis Obispo. Frolian left the service of
the Frenchmen that day, and one Nieves Robles ap-
peared in camp and asked permission to accompany
the cattle-drovers on their journey as far as San Jose.
The proposition accepted, that night he pointed them
out a place to camp near the mouth of the ri\'cr
Nacimiento, a spot that has been baptized in the blood
of murdered men. In the morning some horses were
missing from the cahallada, and the Frenchmen rode
out to hunt them. They never returned. Weeks
afterward the body of one of them was found, the skull
perforated by bullets ; the body of the other was never
discovered. Jack Powers and two Mexican confreres,
Linares and Rafael, attended the horse-race on the
day before the murder, and that evening disappeared.
It was afterward known that, in company with Nieves
Robles, they had killed the Frenchmen, taking froi
one of them the sum of thirty-five hundred dollars
They all returned to San Luis Obispo, when Nieve?
was arrested and tried, but finally discharged. Noth-
ing was done with the others at that time.

.'S

In May, 1857, two Frenchmen, Bortolo Baratio
and M. Borel, came down from Oakland to reside on

BARATIE AND BOREL.

487

the rancho San Juan Capistrano. Madame Baratio
accompanied her husband, and they hail two Cahtbr-
nian servants. One evening eight men came along,
representing themselves as horse-runners, and wished
to buy food. The Frenchmen generously supplied them
without pay, and that night allowed them to sleep in
the building with their servants. The next day one
of the band, Miguel Blanco by name, came back alone,
stating that his partners were running horses, and
asked the privilege of unsaddling his liorse, which
was allowed him. The Frenchmen were engaged in
cleaning out a well, and the servants were cutting hay
a little distance away, but out of sight. Baratie left
his partner and came round to speak to the servants,
Blanco remaining by Borel. Baratie soon heard firing
from the direction of the well, and Blanco, having
shot Borel, came running round as the otiier murder-
ers rode up, and fired at Baratie, hitting him in the
shoulder. Driving Baratie and the servants to the
house at the muzzle of the pistol, they forced the
Frenchman to disclose the whereabouts of his money,
about three thousand dollars, which they immediately
divided among the band. Baratid was then shot down
before the eyes of his wife, and she herself was car-
ried away to a place of concealnuMit in the mountains,
whence she afterward escaped and returned to Oalc-
land. The Californian servants escaped with their
lives and gave the alarm. Two of tlie murderers
were soon afterward caught and hanged in San Luis,
making a complete confession of their dark deeds.
So bold had crime become in San Luis that villains
were often heard boasting on the streets of theii' bloody
deeds, using such expressions as: "How the damntid
scoundrel fought for his life!" or, "Why, he tired tiirec;
shots from his revolver after we thought him dead!"
with reference to some one they had killed. Many
of the native Californians of the southern counties
were in league with the nmrderers, and gave thcni
aid and comfort in every way, rendering it almost

¥>

Pf'

488

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

impossible for the ends of justice to be attained. The
robbers were completely organized, with their signs,
grips, and passwords, and it was only the energetic
action of the people, striding over the tangled meshes
of the law, that finally broke up the powerful alliance
and restored a measure of safety to the persons and
property of the public.

In June, Jose Antonio Garcia, one of the parties
concerned in the murder of the Frenchmen near the
Nacimiento, was hanged by the citizens of San Luis.
He made a confession on the gallows, implicating the
gambler Jack Powers in the crime.

Following swiftly upon this event came another,
which indicated that the people had at last become
aroused. •Several of the robbers who had been con-
cerned in the tragedy at San Juan Capistrano, the
miscreant Pio Linares at their head, being hard-
pressed by the Americans who were pursuing them,
took shelter in a dense willow wood on the Osos
Rancho, near San Luis Obispo, and were surrounded.
The pursuing party attempted to hunt them out, but
after having one of their number wounded by a shot
from Linares, were forced to desist on account of the
approach of night. By the next night over a hundred
armed citizens were on the ground, hemming the
wood with a cordon of sentries, and the next morning
began to beat the brush for the robbers. A battle
ensued, in which Pio Linares was killed, and his two
Mexican companions, both of whom were participants
in the San Juan Capistrano murder, were captured.
The citizens had one man killed and two others
wounded. The captured Mexicans were openly hanged
in San Luis the next day. Considering the reign of
terror that had so long existed in that region, and
the utter powerlessness of the law to reach the red-
handed assassins, these acts of the Vigilance Com-
mittee were not only justifiable but eminently worthy
of applause.

Nieves Robles was finally apprehended and lodged

LOS ANGELES ORGANIZATION.

4SG

linge(

Idged

in the jail at San Luis, whence ho was quietly taken
by the vigilants on the 27th of June 1858 and hanged.
He confessed his part in the Nacimiento murder,
and his statement was fully corroborative of those
made by his accomplices who had preceded him on
the gallows.

Soon after these occurrences the Vigilance Com-
mittee of San Luis Obispo disbanded, considering its
work accomplished.

Among the Los Angeles archives I find the fol-
lowing:

"At a meeting of the citizens of Los Angeles held on the 13th of July
18")! at the mayor's oiBce, to consult the public good by organizing a volun-
tucr police, in accordance with the action of the city council, -B. D. Wilson,
mayor of the city, was called to the chair and L. Granger appointed secre-
tary. The following is the ordinance passed by the city council :

"First, That Dr Hope be named chief of a body of police composed of the
inhabitants of this city who may voluntarily think proper to form it, which
chief of police will bo governed by the orders of the mayor.

"Second, Dr A. W. Hope, in connection with the mayor and the previous
consent of the persons voluntarily joining themselves to said police, will [iro-
CLcd to organize said body, naming the subalterns by the mayor and chief of
police.

"Third, The sole object of this police will be to guard the security of the
inhabitants and the conservation of the peace in conformity with the laws of
the state and the last part of Article I.

"Approved. B. D. Wilson, Mayor."

Then follow the names enrolled. At a subsequent
meeting officers were chosen and the organization
waited orders from the chief of police. This might
l)e called a vigilance committee organized under the
auspices of the law ; for we may be sure that such a
body would never let law stand greatly iu their way.

In July 1852 two young Americans came by
steamer from San Francisco to San Diego, intending
to purchase stock. One was named McCoy and the
other Ludwig. They had started on horseback for
Los Angeles, when they were overtaken by Doroteo
Zavaleta and Jesus Rivas, Mexicans, who entered into
conversation with them in regard to trading horses.

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

Procccdinj; on their jouniey, the Mexicana ganied the
confidence of their companions, providing out of their
supply meat for the whole party, and apparently en-
tertaining the kindliest feeling toward them. But
the Mexicans' only desire was to nmrder and plunder,
and one night they accomplished their purpose. Rivas
asked ^IcCoy for his knife, with which he cut two
heavy sticks; then, encamped on the banks of the San
Gabriel, the Americans made preparations for sleep.
Spreading a blanket upon the ground, they invited the
]\Iexicans to lie down beside them. Zavaleta devoutly
replied that he must first say his prayers. About two
hours later the Mexicans approached the sleeping
men and eacli simultaneously struck one on the head
with a club, and beat them until dead. They secured
three hundred dollars, and their pistols, knives, horses,
and saddles. The bodies were left unburied. Zavaleta
and Rivas were subsequently arrested at Santa Bar-
bara, with a companion, Carmillo, for horse-thieving.
Afterward suspicions of the truth were excited, and
an examination was made by a committee of tlie
people at Los Angeles. Carmillo turned state-evi-
dence and repeated what Rivas had told liim of tliu
murder of the Americans, and satisfactorily proved
his own innocence. Zavaleta was next examined,
and after four or five hours of questioning and false
swearing, volunteered a full confession of the truth.
His testimony was afterward substantiated by his
taking a party of men to the scene of tlie murder,
and discovering to them the bodies. Rivas' contra-
dictory statements were also followed by confession.
A people's meeting war< held at the court-house at
four o'clock on Friday aft rnoon, August Gth, to con-
sider what should be dory. They appointed a jury of
twelve men to hear aiKi act upon the testimony that
had been obtained by the previous committee, which
was read to them in English and Spanish. The jury
retired for a few minutes and returned with a verdict
of guilty of murder in the first degree. It was then

AflASSINATION OF BEAN.

401

and
tlio
cvi-
thii
ovcd

y of
:liat
lich
lury
diet
then

voted unanimously tliat tho accused be hanged the
following morning at eight o'clock. It was also de-
cided that Carmillo should be handed over to tho
civil authorities. The sentence passed upon the con-
denmed was executed at the appointed hour. Tho
gallows was erected upon the summit of Fort Hill,
where tho men were conducted, betraying no emotion
of fear or contrition. After the priest had given them
absolution, the prisoners addressed the people. Their
remarks were chiefly angry accusations of each other.
Rivas advised any who contemplated such crimes as
his, either to have no associates or to select bravo
men, and not cowards who would betray them. At
the conclusion of their remarks the final prepara-
tions were made, and in fifteen minutes their lifeless
bodies were left to the care of their friends. Zavaleta
was respectably connected, and was in the prime of
life. Rivas was born in Sonora, and was but twenty
years of age.

Major-general J. H. Bean, who had served both
as alcalde and mayor of San Diego, and who was
greatly respected and beloved by the entire commu-
nity, was assassinated late one evening in Xovember
1852 as ho was returning home from his store in San
Gabriel. He was riding liorseback, when he was sud-
denly attacked by two men who were awaiting his
approach. One sprang forward, and seizing the bridle
jerked the horse back upon his haunches, while the
other pulled the general from the saddle and threw
him violently upon the ground. Bean was a powerful
man, and though his assailant was upon him, he rose
to his feet and attempted to defend himself with his
knife; but he was overpowered by superior dexterity,
and was stabbed several times by the ruffian. When
he lay dead upon the ground he was shot by the
wretch, who rejoiced that he had destroyed the
life of one whose influence and wealth had been used
in attempts to exterminate the class he represented.

492

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

As soon as the death of General Bean became known,
renewed efforts were made to rid the neighborhood of
the highwaymen infesting it. A band of desperadoes
was suspected, and delermined efforts made to arrest
the leaders and break up the organization. About
this time the Vigilance Committee of Los Angeles
caused the arrest of several Mexicans belonging to
Salomon Pico's band, among others one Reyes Feliz,
a young fellow fifteen or sixteen years of age. He
was convicted and executed on account of his connec-
tion with the band. Feliz made a confession of his
crimes, including the murdering of a Mexican, but
professed ignorance of General Bean's death, or of
any person accessory to it. Upon the testimony
of one Ana Benites, a member of Joaquin Murieta's
party, v/ho was also arrested, the death-blow of Gen-
eral Bean was charged to Cipriano Sandoval. Ana
asserted that Cipriano confessed the murder to her
immediately after its occurrence, and she detailed full
particulars. Ilor testimony also implicated Benito
Lopez, and both were tried, pronounced guilty, and
hanged by the people. Lopez confessed to several
murders, and disclosed the spot where the bodies of
his victims were concealed. Cipriano Sandoval made
a few remarks just previous to his death, protesting
to the last his innocence of the murder of General
Bean. Both Feliz and Lopez seemed to feel that
they had been betrayed by Ana Benites, and advised
their companions not to put their faith in women.
At the time of the execution of Lopez and Sandoval,
another Sonoreno was also hanged. Early that Sunday
morning, December 12th, while walking with a com-
panion on the street, he had stabbed and instantly
killed him. He was soon afterward arrested, tried at
once by the people, and executed witJi the other
criminals at three o'clock in the afternoon. As was
stated, Cipriano Sandoval was hanged on the charge
of the murder of General Bean. Five years later the
sad revelation was made that he was not the nmrderer.

LOS ANGELES IN 1854.

403

The real criminal, shielded by rich and influential
friends, had died iu his own home, but harassed
by the terrible secret, he had revealed the truth on
his death-bed, and the martyred Sandoval was then
known in his true character, as a simple, ignorant,
and obscure shoemaker, who had worked soberly and
industriously at his trade in San Gabriel. Though
the movers in this execution were men of sound licads
and good hearts, this fatal mistake shows the neces-
sity of the utmost caution in the use of power.

Insecurity of life, and immorality, prevailed to an
alarming extent in Los Angeles in the year 1854.
The mission natives had retrograded since left to
themselves, and continually gambled, drank, and quar-
relled with each other; so that in the morning when
natives were found dead in the streets tlio matter
was not considered of sufficient importance to require
investigation. There were other classes scarcely su-
perior in many respects to the natives. Gambling
disputes were of nightly occurrence, and pistol-shots
a natural consequence. A resident of Los Angeles
I'or a short time, says that while he was there ahnost
every night one murder at least was conimitted, and
oi'ten two or three, and that the ordinary morning
sakitation was, " Well, how many persons were killed
last night?" "Only four; three Indians and one Mex-
ican," perhaps being the reply. " We have received a
letter from a citizen of Lo-: Angeles," says the San
Francisco Herald in Never. iber of this year, "de-
claring that it is unsafe to go out after dark; and some
ilka may be formed of the reign of terror that i)re-
vails, from the fact that he requests us to conceal his
name, as his temerity in even complaining of these
tliin'j^s mijjht cause him to be victimized. If the
authorities are so inert as to permit murderers and
outlaws t^ "^un riot, why do not the people of Los
Angeles t,ocablish a vigilance committee and make
sunie examples? San Francisco was once qmte as

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

unsafe as Los Angeles, and it would probably be so
still but for the decisive measures taken by its citizens.
We see no other cure for the dreadful condition of
Los Angeles than the organization of an energetic
vigilance committee. One thing is certain: nothing
could be worse than its present plight, and it would
therefore be safe to make the experiment." The Los
Angeles Star of the 30th of November admits the
truth of the statement as to the condition of the city,
but denies the necessity of a vigilance committee.
Having confidence in their officers, nothing was
required of the people, unless it were to help the
officials — which strikes an impartial observer as
somewhat absurd; for why should anarchy and riot
reign in the midst of efficient officers and good gov-
ernment?

.'■: ^i

There was one David Brown, who on the 13th of
October, without provocation, killed a companion
named Clifford. He was arrested, legally tried, and
sentenced to be hanged with one Alvitrc. The people
during the trial organized a meeting, determined
themselves to trv the case of Brown, but were dis-
suaded by the mayor, Stephen C. Foster, who was
anxious to give the courts one more chance for f<;iccdy
administration of the law, promising that, in case the
prisoner escaped by any quibble or trick, he would
resign his office at once and join the people in the
summary punishment of Brown. The citizens wort;
satisfied with the action of the court, and awaited
the execution of the law. But on Wednesday tlio
10th of January 1855, an order from Judge Murray
of the supreme court was received, staying the execu-
tion of Brown. On Thursday evening an immense;
gathering assembled at the Montgomery Saloon, with
Colonel McClanahan in the chair. Several speeches
were made, among others one by Mayor Foster, iu
which he unequivocally declared himself iu favor of
hanging Brown and Alvitre together. The following

Kii

MAYOR FOSTER RESIGNS.

493

from the Southern Califomian is an extract from a
lengthy article read to the meeting and received with
enthusiastic applause :

" Citizens of Los Angeles ! ' Tis for you to say whether the gross and out-
rageous partiality shall be allowed ; whether you will permit so flagi'ant and
glaring an evidence of the omnipotence of birth and condition to op(!rato in
widening still further the breach that already exists between our native and
foreign population, so prolific of future disaster to the community."

In speaking of the trial of Brown, the editor con-
tinues :

" Our own court has done its duty manfully, unshaken by and oblivious to
all influences save those of law and justice. The trials have progressed and
ended, and richly merited punishment awarded ; and our citizens, gladdened
beyond measure at this evidence of a new order of things, were looking for-
ward to a future fraught with hope and better things. "

The next afternoon, Friday, the 12th of January,
Alvitre, accompanied by Sheriff Barton with a large
armed force, was led into the jail-yard to the gallows,
where at three o'clock he was executed, though the
])Oor fellow fell to the ground from the noose untying
before death ensued, and was obliged to have the rope
readjusted and to be again suspended. Thousands of
l)coplc witnessed the execution, and there was serious
apprehension that resistance would be made to the
sheriff, who refused to deliver Brown. The cannon
had bee'} spiked on the previous night and every pre-
cautionary effect taken by the authorities. After the
oxccut"u>n «;f Alvitre the scaffold was taken down and

ioj-ce disbanded. The crowd then gathered
jail, and addresses were made urging the

()u;-!5^.1e \\\

i>cizurc a' 4 o ccution of Brown. Mayor Foster re-
signed bib Oihce, and incited the people to proceed.
Captrin Hunter then asked all in favor of the measure
to follow him. Led by Hunter, Foster, and McClaii-
alum, the crowd moved on into the jail-yard and to the
coll of Brown, where with axes the door was battered
down and the prisoner brought out. Another mur-
ilcr condemned to be hanged in February, was in
th». t ?ve cell, but he was left unharmed. Brown was

496

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

:.t;

■ I

1 1

]■ m

conducted to a large gate-way opposite the ^ourt-house,
V'here a rope was suspended from the cross-beam, with
ii chair placed underneath. While Brown stood on
diis somewhat novel platform having the rope adjusted,
he kindly informed the crowd that they did not know
how to hang a man, and requested they should permit
him to show them. His cool indifference was main-
tained to the last, when he kicked the chair from
beneath his feet and was quickly strangled. A few
days later Stephen C. Foster was reelected by a large
vote to the position of mayor, which he had resigned
to further, as he thought, the ends of justice.

At Los Ang( l( '^reat excitement arose from the
rash sliooting of ^ onio Ruiz on the 19th of July
18 56 by a deputy constable named Jenkins, who met
with some opposition in the service of a writ of exe-
cution for the sale of Ruiz's property. Jenkins sur-
rendered himself and was admitted to bail. Next day
Ruiz died, and the Spanish population were indignant
that Jenkins, whom they regarded as a murderer — for
Ruiz was a quiet, well behaved man, and had not given
the officer sufficient provocation to justify him in the
killing— should be at large. Ou application by tb"
district attorney to Judge Hayes, Jenkins was incar-
cerated, but the people had by this time oecome so
excited that they threatened the jail.

Ruiz's funeral was the largest that had ever taken
place in Los Angeles. After the services were con-
cluded, the immense crowd convened near the grave
was addressed by a Frenchman and others, who threat-
ened vengeance on the Americans. Their threats
were of such a character that the citizens were noti-
fied and active preparations made for self-defence.
The following extract from an affidavit, subsequently
made by Judge William G. Dryden, shows clearly
what apprehensions were entertained: "About four
o'clock on Tuesday, July 2 2d, a Californian came to
my residence in the city of Los Angeles and told

THE CITY THREATEXED.

407

taken
con-

mc he had just learned that on that Tuesday ni<>lit
after eight o'clock an attack might be expected in
tlie city by the Soiiorians, in connection with the
French and some Dutch; that they were about six
liundred strong, and that if I wished to save my life
I had better take my horse and conceal myself on
some rancho; that they had just attempted to take
liis horse, but desisted when he told them it was very
tired, being just from a rancho. This Califoi-nian said
that the object of the attack was to destroy all the
Americans; he said nothing about the attack on the
jail. He told me that he made this comnmnication
because he felt toward me like a brother. For four
or five nights I com ■ hear the Mexicans riding about
the streets singing then- rcfranes, the burden of which
was of war, repeating the word Americano; could fre-
(juently also hear tlie word vcnganza.^'

Immediately upon receiving the above information
from the Californian, Judge Dryden called on Judge
Hayes, and together thcjy visited a conunittee repre-
senting the assemblage at the cemetery. The judges,
accompanied by this connnittee, went to the jail, wliicli
they found surrounded by ISIexicans. The sheriif's
and the judges' promises quieted the peo])le, and they
dispersed. On tiie following morning, Jenkins was
brought before Judge Hayes foi* preliminary exami-
nation. In writing of this aifair the judge says:
"Thirty men armed with muskets insisted upon guard-
ing the court-house. Thus I had to sit on this
occasion with soldiers on the *ut>;ido and this same
committee occupying the jury-box, to see, as I under-
stood, that the judge did justice. xVll other poisons
were excluded. The judge and prisoner, his a'torney
and witnesses, one feature of tlie [jicture; soldiers on
tlie left, a connnittee, to all intents and pur-poses, on
the rijrht." That evenincc after the formalities were
concluded, judges Hayes and Dryden attemi)ted to
investigate matters, visiting ^Mexicans for this pur-
pose, but no inlbrnuiti(in could be obtained. They

Pop. TniB.. Vol. I. 'J2

498

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

« t

began to think the alarm was without foundation,
when the bright moonlight suddenly discovered the
rendezvous, on the hill, of a large force. Only waiting
long enough to secure for his family a place of safety,
where already many families had congregated. Judge
Hayes joined the citizens who had armed and organ-
ized. All through the night the citizens were on the
alert; horsemen were galloping up and down the
streets, carrying messages back and forth from one
section of the town to another. They would not be
the aggressors, but were prepared to be merciless in
their retribution if once attacked. About midnight,
while Marshal Getman, with a company of footmen,
was riding near the hill, where some two or three
hundred of the belligerents were assembled, he was
attacked and obliged to retreat. Afterward four
Mexicans shot at him, and he fell ; then they rode by,
firing at him as he lay upon the ground. The attack
having been made, the military were ordered to the
plaza, but, inefficiently organized, they were some time
in reaching the spot. The insurgents in the mean
time disbanded; their patriotic ardor and their vindic-
tive purposes seemed to have been sunk into oblivion
from excessive drink, and there was no further demon-
stration made by them that night.

The citizens on the following day received reeu-
forcements from El Monte, and strong military power
was secured. There was a feverish excitement for
some days, but with the militia ready for action, it'
needed, the fears of the people at last subsided.

The examination of Jenkins by Judge Hayes ic-
sulted in his being sent to the grand jury for trial,
with bail fixed at three thousand dollars. At his
final trial he was exonerated from blame and releaseil.

For many months Los Angeles County was vic-
timized by organized banditti, probably one hundred
in number. They threatened the extermination of
the Americans, and a war of races seemed about to be

A LARGE BAND OF ROBBERS.

4»y

tioii,

the
iting
fety,
udgc
rgan-
n tlie
L the
1 one
lot bo
OSS iu
night,
itmen,

three
le was
I Ibuv
•de by,
attack
to the
jc time
mean
indie -

Dhviou

lemou-

reen-
, power
Ut for
^ion, it"

res re-
trial,
.t his

leased.

IS vie-

indred

lion of

to be

inaugurated. Many ineffectual attempts had been
made for the arrest of the leaders of the gang, which
was at last accomplished by the sacrifice of some of
the lives of Los Angeles' best citizens. In January ,
1857 one Garnet Hardy started for San Juan with a
fine team of four American horses. He reached his
destination in safety, but was told that the banditti
were in that vicinity and were more reckless than
over, and that he could not return alive. Hardy
sent this information to his brother in Los Angeles,
whereupon a party was organized by Sheriff J . R.
Barton to start in pursuit of their much coveted prey.
William H. Little, Charles K. Baker, Charles F.
J^aley, Frank Alexander, and Alfred Hardy volun-
teered their services, and an unarmed Frenchman
acted as guide. In the mean time the banditti wore
committing robberies and murders in a most defiant
manner. Several instances might be given, but one
will suffice: They entered the house and store of
George Flughardt, where they at once brutally mur-
dered the proprietor, and then, while securing their
plunder, ordered Flughardt's assistant to serve tlieui
a good supper, which they ate with a relish while the
body of their hapless victim lay outstretched before
them.

On Friday morning the 23d of January 1857, the
sheriff and his little force arrived at Sepiilveda's ranclio,
where the Frenchman had been employed many years
as vaquero. From the Mexicans he learned that fifty
of the banditti were at that time among the nioun-
tains, and that an attack upon them would be sure
death to the Americans. Nothing daunted they
dashed on, for they were close upon their prey, whoso
numbers they thought were undoubtedly exaggerated.
Having advanced about twelve miles, at a spur of
the San Joaquin Rancho Mountains a man was seen
galloping rapidly away. Little and Baker rode for-
ward to keep him in sight, when a band of twenty
men rushed out from between the hills and fired upon

500

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

\^ w

and killed thcni. Barton and the others rode (juickly
forward, but were at once surrounded. The four
charged valiantly upon the robl)ers, whose overwhelm-
ing numbers soon ended all resistance, not, however,
until three of the banditti had fallen. Hardy and
Alexander alone escaped; they recognized their dan-
ger, and owing to the superior lleetness of their horses
eluded pursuit.

Information of the disaster was at once conveyed
to El ]\Ionte and Los Angeles. On the following day
the bodies of the four men w'cre found. They had
evidently been fired upon after death. Their watches
were gone and all their pockets empty.

Sheriff Barton was one of the bravest and most
conscientious of Los Angeles' officials. His life had
been endangered many times, but his duty was never
neglected on account of personal danger. Three years
previous, when Brown was in his custody, he valiantly
refused to deliver him to the people, though from his
will, discovered after his death, it was seen by the
date, January 11, 1854, the night previous to the
execution of Alvitre, that he realized that his life was
jeopardized. Barton and his associates were eulogized
by the local press as among the noblest and most
res|)ected of their fellow-citizens.

] )eliberate action was taken for the arrest of the
ruffians. It was determined that a large company
should be formedf^dnd, divided into detachments,
should attack the roljbcrs in their mountain fast-
nesses. One division was composed of El Monte men,
twenty-six in number, commanded by Bethel Coo]i-
wood; another was of native Calilbrnians under com-
mand of Andres Pico, who, starting from Los Angeles
with nineteen men, was reenforced at Pio Pico's
rancho and elsewhere, so that he had a company of
iil'ty men in all. He also secured the valuable services
of I'orty-five natives, with their captain, Manuelito,
by whose aid the mountain passes were effuctually
guarded. The third comj)any was under command

SEARCH FOR BANDITTI.

501

of James Thompson, and numbcrocl originally twonty-
sovcn men; likewise Thompson received the coopera-
tion of United States troops from Fort Tejon, which
he stationed most advantageously at San Fernando
Pass, Simi Pass, Scorpion liancho, and on the main
Santa Barbara road.

The first step taken by Andr(5s Pico was to send
native spies into the mountains to discover the hiding-
places of the robbers. Acting in concert with El
^[onte men, their force numbered over one hundred.
The spies returned and reported the camp situattsd at
the head of the Canada do Santiago, and that if an
assault could at once be made the whole band would
be captured. It being a dark night, they were
()l)liged to wait until early morning, when as they
were making an advance they saw Juan Flores
watchinii: their movements from an ovcrliani;in<' lock.
He was beyond the reach of attack, and [)rocec(lt'd
on iartl"r and higher with his men, of whom all
but two were on horseback. The mountains in wliidi
the Mexicans had taken refuge were almost inaccessihU'
even on foot, and while the Americans were following,
tliey were eluding pursuit by most reckless daring.
Juan Flores, Jesus Tllspinosa, and Leonardo Lo|)ez, on
mounted horses, slid down a precipice to a kind <>f
piojecting ledge fifty feet below, where, abandoning
their animals, by the aid of brush growing u[)ou an
almost perpendicular wall, they descentled five hundred
feet. Then escaping into an adjacent mountain, tliey
continued their course througli dense chaparral. Fran-
cisco Ardillero and Juan Silvas, afraid to undertake
tile (lospiTatc venture of their leaders, wi^re captured
l)v the onijirds.

The trail of Flores and his companions was dis-ov-
eicd. Seeing that they were pursued, they concealed
themselves in a cave in the Canada, but overpowered
l)y numbers they were at last captured on Sunday,
I'ebruary 1st, and taken to the rancho of Teotlocio
Verba, six miles distant.

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

The glad news of their capture was quickly fol-
lowed by the exasperating intelligence of their escape.
It seems that, though bound and under guard, they
slipped away in the darkness of midnight, and not-
withstanding their flight was immediately discovered
they were once again free men.

The disposition of Thompson's party has already
hccn mentioned. On the following Tuesday, February
3d, a Mexican searching for water was suddenly ac-
costed at Simi Pass by two soldiers, who with levelled
guns ordered him to dismount, which he at once did.
His liorse was a miserable mustang, and the man un-
armed. In reply to questions he gave his name as
Sanchez, from San Fernando mission, and said that
he was hunting horses. Upon being taken into camp
he was recognized as the redoubtable Juan Flores.
His companions escaped for the time, but retribution
eventually overtook most of the band. Flores was
wounded in the right arm by his own gun, which cx-
pl(Klcd when leaping over the precipice. Mr Thomp-
son brought his prisoner to the jail at Los Angeles,
attending him, at his own request, to his cell. The
siglit of the assembled people seemed to destroy his
self-possession, which was regained, however, when he
found himself in the hands of the law.

At the time of Flores' escape from the guard on
Sunday night, Andres Pico became alarmed for the
safety of his prisoners, Silvas and Ardillero, and de-
termined upon their immediate execution. They were
hanged about twenty miles from the place of their
capture. Many hardships were endured by the vol-
unteer corps in their hazardous undertaking. They
were eleven days searching the country for the fugi-
tives. Fifty-two men were captured and lodged in tlio
Los Angeles jail, and these once formidable banditti,
at last rendered powerless, were disbanded. All of
those arrested were tried, but little could be proved
against them, and the larger part of the prisoners
were discharged for want of evidence. The most

WHOLESALE HANGING.

503

prominent among the criminals executed was Juan
Flores. After a week's imprisonment the people as-
sembled to decide his fate. It was proposed that he
should be immediately executed, to which suggestion
the crowd gave its unqualified approbation. Mean-
while several persons mounted a platform and lia-
rangued the people, advising them to execute at the
same time three JSIexicans, two of whom had robbed
a horseman in the Tojon, the third having attempted
liis assassination. This proposition was subjected to
vote, resulting in a small majority in favoi- of leaving
them to the disposition of the courts.

The people now directed their way to the prison,
where Flores awaited his fate. He was a young njan of
prepossessing appearance, and but twenty-two years
of age. Dressed in black coat, light vest, and white
pants, and with aspect subdued, there was nothing to
indicate the formidable desijoiado of a fortniixlit auo.
He acknowledged his blood-guiltiness, but said that
Pancho Daniel was the leader of the gang rather
than he. Two priests accompanied the [)risoner to
the scaffold, which was erected on the hill, a quarter
of a mile distant, where an immense crowd luid con-
gregated. Companies of Monte men, Californians
and Frenchmen, mounted and on foot, were prepared
to enforce order if necessary. Flores preserved a
calm demeanor to the last; he himself adjusted the
rope, which unfortunately was badly done, causing him
much suffering.

On the 2d of February a young fellow of but
eighteen, Jesus Espinosa, was captured and executed
at Santa Bdrbara. He was one of Flores' confedei"-
ates, escaping pursuit as before described. He freely
confessed to Father Serrano his guilt.

Another of the gang, one Berryesa, was also hanged
a day or two later by the people. He had been exe-
cuted, as was supposed, in Santa Clara Coimty, and
his body delivered to his friends, who, however, had

PU''

Tl :

504

COUXTUY COMMITTKKS OF VlfJI LANCE.

effected his resuscitation. Since then he liad com-
uiittoil otiier niurilers. The marks of the rope about
his neck were plainly visible at the time of his final
execution.

On the 29th of January, Mij^uel Soto and others
attacked Cyrus Sanford at San Gabriel mission.
Santord returned the fire, shootinjjf Soto in the thij^h.
Soto then took refuoe in the marsh near by, covering
his body with weeds and mud. Several citizens now
came to Sanford's assistance, and settinjjf fire to the
weeds soon exposed Soto to view. He was at once
shot. His companions were subsequently arrested.
They were named Juan Valenzuela, Pedro Lopez, and
Dicjjo Navarra. These banditti were amonff the first
on whom fell vengeance for Sheriff Barton's death.
They were led out to be hanged, but the rope proving
too short they were shot.

The citizens of Los Angeles were no less surpristnl
than delighted to see the carcass of the notorious bantlit
Panclio Daniel hanging in the gate- way of the jir'-
yard on the morning of the 30th of November IF
By his band four of Sheriff Barton's yjo.v.yc, in
dortaking their capture, had been killed nearly tw<>
years before, as already described. A reward of
twenty-five hundred dollars had been offered by Gov-
ernor Johnson for his arrest, and fifteen hundred
dollars additional by the citizens. On the 1 9th (»f
January 1858 he was captured by the sheriff, who
found him in a hay-stack near San Jose. After his
arrest part of the time he was confined in prison and
part of the time at large on bail; he had undergone
three attempted trials in the courts, and the last
move was a change of venue to Santa Barbara; in
other words, the law had concluded to let the robber
loose.

The patience of the people was exhausted. It was
simply infamous, this j)rostitution of the law by its
ministers for the sul>servience of their own selfish

THE CASK OF PANCrro DAXIFIL.

008

ends. A liundi'od dwrllinujs iniu;lit luiiii, n hundrod
tnivellors iniglit bo .sto[)p(Ml u[)<>!i tin* liiL"li\v;iy, so tluit
tliu pettifogger sociired his toe and tlu' Judge his sul-
jiry. Of the greutc^st Jidvaiitage to tliic^vcs was sueh
achninistratiou of law: better fai' for iheni than if
there iiad been no law. For if no law against stealing
existed all the world would turn tliioves, and tliero
would be no one left to steal from. As it is, all tlio
robber must needs do is to steal enough, then divide
the j)lundcr with his attorney, and he is fi'ee. The
oxaetions of the law, so far as he is eoneerned, arc
only a protective tariff which secures him against
ruinous opposition in his business.

The people of Los Angeles concluded tliat the farce
had lasted about lonij enoujjh; so i)ne nij^ht about
two hundred and twenty of them met ami rt-solved
that before the sun rose again the Pancho Daniel
venue would be changed to a point farther away than
Santa Barbara.

Luckily the sheriff was absent, hunting Andtes
Fontes, one of Daniel's band, who had been seen
luiking in that vicinity. Attention generally w.is at-
tracted in other directions. There was IJamiiiigs new
steam yacht from San l^^rancisco, and ^[{uir a concourse
of [)eople, accompanied by tlu; brass band, had gone to
San Pedro to celebrate its arrival. An emigi.uit train
had just come in. Then thert' were many strangers in
town on their way to and from tlie CJila mines, whose
conversation drew attcntioix toward that quarter.

Part of the two hundred and twenty thought they
should onjoy sleeping in a corral near the jail; so they
tried it. The otliers, fascinated by the charms of an
early semi-tropical morning, rose before the break of
day and strolled toward the jail, common attractions
seemingly lying in that direction. But just bclore
reaching the spot whither they tended, singularly
enough they all disappeared, vanished into thin air;
so that when the old methodical jailer just at dawn,
as was his custom, appeared with his basket on the

606

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

way to market, not a soul was to be seen. Before he
had taken twenty steps, however, from the gate which
he had just carefully locked, many were to be seen.
He thought ho saw a thousand, but there were only
two hundred and twenty.

The old jailer at once permitted himself to be over-
powered by numbers, and the key to be gently wrested
from him by the courteous though resolute citizens.
The law loves verbiage, and this limb of it wished the
outrage to bo consummated in every particular, though
with whatsoever degree of gentleness and affability
the outragcrs should please. The two hundred and
twenty, with the key in their hand and the jailer their
prisoner, had but to finish their work, which they did
so quietly as not to disturb the morning sleep of anj''
in Los Angeles. Commenting upon another case, the
Los Angeles Star of October 19, 18G1, says:

"Wo li.ive ever been, and still aro opposed to mob law; but if ever aii
occasion can arise when the righteous indignation of a people will prompt them
to the instant punishment of an enormity whoso hellish atrocity appalls the
stoutest licart anu shocks the moral sensibilities of the most obdurate or the
most obtuse, the pi-cscnt is that occasion. Here is the stoi-y : A young man,
a Californian named Francisco Cota, living with his mother on Spring street,
was observed sharpening a knife, and in reply to a question as to its in-
tended use, ho said ho wanted it to cut up meat with. On the following day,
Thursday, ho entered tho grocery store of Lorenzo liCck, and gave an order to
Mrs Leek, who was alono at the time, her husband and his clerk being away
for the day. As she turned to obtain the goods, Cota stepped up and struck
her on the neck with his knife, almost severing the head from tlic liody.
Then stabbing her again two or three times, he fled, covered Avith her blood.
Some few minutes eliipsed before tho murder was discovered, although perpe-
trated ill the mivldle of the forenoon and in a populous neighborhood. The
alarm was given by a little daughter of Mrs Leek, but five years of age, who
ran into a neighbor's house, frightened and crying, with her baby-brother
clinging in terror to her hand. The child said her mamma was on tho floor
with lier hcail cut off. As soon as the dreadful truth became known thorough
search was made for the murderer. He was found in a house near tho mili-
tary camp, under a bed -, his knife was discovered, concealed between the
matti-esscs, and his ))loody clothing markeil his guilt. He was placed in a
wagon and convoyed to the jail, tho greatest difficulty being experienced in
pi'cventing hi.s seizure l>y tiio people. A public meeting was held in the
afternoon, handbills liaving been issued asking tho citizens to meet at the
Lafayettu Hotel at three o'clock. A committee, appointed for the purpose,

MORE HANGING.

e he
hich
5cen.
only

over-
csted
izcns.
d the
lOUgh
hiUty
d and
' their
cy did
)t' any
se, the

f ever an

iinpt them
)paUa the
itc or the
)uug mivn,
ng street,
to its in-
kving <lay,
In order to
ing away
ind struck
[the hody.
her blood.
|igh pcrpe-
,od. The
age, who
)y -brother
li the iloor
thorough
the niili-
Itween the
ilaced in a
Iricnccd in
dd in tlic
keet at the
purpose.

waited upon the authorities, who promised an immediate examination. The
prisoner was at once brought before Justice Peterson, who, allowing him until
ten o'clock the next morning to procure counsel, ordered his removal to jiiil.
As the officers with tlie prisoner were emerging from the court-room, they
were surrounded and seized by a crowd, and hurried off to Alameda street,
meeting with some resistance on the way from citizens who undertook to
rescue the prisoner, repeatedly cutting the rope with ■wliicli he was bound.
Tlu-ir cflforts were unavailing, as the lifeless body of Francisco Cota, suspended
from the cross-bar of a gate-way, soon attested. No reason could be assigneil
for the murder, perpetrated coldly and with premeditation, upon a woimin
who had never injured or even provoked him, to any one's knowledge."

John Rains was a prominent resident of Chino, San
Bernardino County. He was estimated to be wortli
two hundred thousand dollars, and owned the Comongo
Ranclio. On the iTth of November 18G2, as he was
travelling alone and unarmed, he encountered several
men, one of whom inquired where he was going.
Rains replied, "To town." "I think not; we've got
you now!" was the rejoinder, and immediately he was
fired upon by the assassins, who jerked him from liis
horse by one arm. As he was still able to make re-
sistance, they lassoed him and dragged him across tlio
road into the bushes, where his body was afterward
found, bearing marks of most brutal treatment, iiis
clothing torn oif, and one boot lost in the struLr!j:)e.
The murder was committed for the sake of plundei.

Upon suspicion of participation in this crime, Manuel
Ceredel was arrested. Taken ill with small-pox, and
thinking himself about to die, Ceredel disclosed all
the particulars of the conspiracy against Rains, in
consequence of which several parties started in pursuit
of his confederates, arresting five or six, who were
identified by Ceredel. Recovering somewhat unex-
l)Gctedly, Ceredel was tried and sentenced to ten years
in the state-prison, a decree that did not satisly the
people. While in the hands of the sheriiF, on board
the steamboat Cricket, en route for San Quentin, tlie
])risoner was seized by the Vigilance Ct)mmittee of Los
Angeles and hanged to the yard-arm. After remain-
ing there for about twenty minutes, the bod}' was

508

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILAXCE.

taken clown, some stones were tied to the feet, and it
was thrown overboard. Between betrayed comrades,
small-pox, state-prison, and vigilance, further residence
on this planet seemed for Ceredel impossible.

On the 5th of February 1864 Santiago Sanchez
was hanged for the murder of Manuel Gonzalez. He
admitted his guilt, but protested that his arrest and
execution were to gratify the spite of Americans
who suspected him of the murder of John Rains, a
charge of which he was innocent. In June 1864 Josd
Ramon Carrillo, while riding with a Californian on
the highway near the stage station Cucamougo, was
shot by a man in ambush, who escaped without having
been seen. The cause of the cowardly assassination
was attributed to the suspicion that had always been
entertained that he was accessory to the murder of
John Rains in November 1862. Although he had
twice surrendered himself to the authorities for trial,
his examination and release did not remove the feeling
entertained by the friends of Rains, and Carrillo liad
felt his life endanijered ever afterward. His assassin
was never known.

On the 15th of November 1863 an affray occui'ied
on the streets of Los Anu'cles. when officer Hoi-ter, in
endeavoring to make an arrest, was brutally beaten l)y
a noted liiiihwavnian, Boston Daniewood, wlio was
assisted by his allies. The next morning tlie sheriff
with his posse arrested five desperate characters, but
in doing so was fired upon by their friends. In tln'
fight that ensued one of tlie ruffians was killed and
another wounded. The names of tlie prisoners were
Boston Daniewood, Jose Olivas, Chase, Wood, and
Il)arra. Each had a history of crime. Daniewood,
the most notorious, was at one time on the police
force in Los Angeles. Leaving the profession of de-
tecting crime for the more allurini; one of committing
it, he proceeded to Colorado and there murdered a
miner, from whom he obtained a large sum of money.

THE HERO WILKINS.

509

At the time of his arrest a committee from La Paz
was appointed to bring him to their territory, where
his crime could easily be proved. The second in order
of vice was Olivas, undoubtedly the murderer of (jne
John Sylvester at Tcjon several years before. He
was tried at the time, and though the circumstantial
evidence asfainst him was of the stronfjest character,
he was acquitted. His subsequent career stamped him
in unconscionable villain. The third, named Chase,
was a notorious horse-thief, whose arrest had been
long predetermined. Wood and Ibarra were high-
waymen recently released from prison.

Judge Hayes received intimation that the people
had threatened to take the prisoners from the jail and
execute them. Accordingly he issued a call for addi-
tional aid from the local and military authorities.
Before his request could be complied with the jail
was surrounded on the 21st of November by two
hundred armed citizens, who forced the iron doors and
seized the five prisoners above mentioned. Leading
them to the corridor in front of the old court-house,
over the beams of which ropes had been placed, tliey
hanged them all.

John Sanford, a prominent citizen of Los Vngcles
County, while riding in a buggy to his she* |»-rancli
on the 6th of December 18G3, overtook two j)cdt's-
trians, one of whom, Charles Wilkins, had been em-
]>loyed for several months in the vicinity of Fort
Tejon as sheep-herder. Sanford spoke to Wilkins, and
engaged his services on the spot; taking him into his
buggy, he proceeded on his journey. Al'ter riding a
few miles Sanford stepped from the buggy, leaving his
loaded pistol lying on the seat. Wilkins picked up
the weapon, seemingly suggestive of un[)rt'm(.'ditatod
crime, and while the owner's back w^as turned shot
liini dead. Then rilling his pockets, he mounted one
of (he horses and rode off. A week after Wilkins was
captured at Santa Bdrbara and brought to Los An-

ilO

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

geles where ho was legally tried. He was indicted
before a special grand jury; and while being brought
into court for trial before Judge Hayes, a brother of
Sanford attempted to shoot him. Assassination failing,
Wilkins pleaded guilty, and at the conclusion of the
trial, in which he was convicted of murder in the first
degree, the court-house was ordered cleared, and the
[)risoner remanded to jail to receive his sentence the
next morning. The people, apprehensive of his pos-
sible escape, made a rush into the court-house, and
taking the prisoner into their custody, carried him to
Banning's corral, where they hanged him at a gate-
way. This was the seventli man within a month
who had been executed by the Vigilance Committee
of Los Angeles. The confession made by Wilkins
soon after his arrest gives indubitable proof of his
diabolical character. He said that he killed Sanfoid,
thinking he might have some money; he did not
know that he had any, but took the chances, and se-
cured only twenty dollars. In reply to the question if
liis conscience troubled him, he said, "No; I have
Icilled eight other men, and think no more of killing a
man than a door." He stated that he was an Ensflish-
man, and that his parents were jVIoimons, living at
Salt Lake. He was but seventeen years of age when
he committed his first murder. He was implicated in
the Mountain Meadows massacre, in which he ob-
tained several thousand dollars. Afterward he killed
one Blackburn, getting his money and mules. Wilkins
was a noted horse-thief He stated that he and two
companions were pursued by a party from Los An-
geles and San Bernardino two years before, who
followed them through Canon Pass, overtook them,
and recovered forty horses. His companions wcri;
captured and sent to the state -prison, but Wilkins
escaped to the mountains, and then went in pursuit
of further prey. A series of crimes resulted in his
arrest at San Luis Obispo, and subsequent confine-
ment in the state -prison. He was the leader of sev-

A NEW COMMITTEE FOR I.OS ANGELES.

611

eral in breaking from the prison, and helped to hold
Lieutenant-governor Chellis before the guns to pre-
vent being fired upon by the guard. He was near
Yroka in 1862, with a Mexican who had escaped from
prison with him, when they met two men, one of
whom v/as a drover named Carr. These men they
])roposed to kill and rob. Wilkins said ho would shoot
Carr, whom they supposed carried the most money,
for, ho boasted, '' I never miss my man." The Mexi-
can bungled his job badly, shooting four or five times
and then jjcrmitting the man to escape. Neverthe-
less they obtained three thousand dollars from the
body of Carr, and evaded detection.

About six weeks before his final arrest Wilkins was
ut the Bella Union Hotel in Los Angeles, where he
stole a revolver and a knife, which he gave to a young
man named Woods and told him to go out on the
road and earn his living with them rather than hang
about the dance-houses doing nothing. Woods wont,
but his career was a short one; for he, with an accom-
plice, Ibarra, was arretted by the Vigilance Committee
and executed with three others, as before mentioned.

While Michael Lachenai lay in })rison for the
murder of Jacob Bell and other villainies wh'ch he
was known to have committed, the Vigilance Com-
mittee of Los Angeles assembled at Sterne Hall to
the number of three hundred. This was the morning
of the I7th of December 1870. It did not take them
long to agree unanimously that Lachenai should be
hanged, and that imiiiediat(!ly. At eleven o'clock the
connuittee proceeded in three divisions to the jail.
On their way, as they marched through the streets,
they were joined by about a thousand citizens, who
encouraged them by their unqualified approbation.
A half hour was consumed in battering down the jail-
doors. Then entering the cell of Lachenai, they threw
a rope round his neck and led him to a place two
squares distant, where they hanged him. He was pre-

r.H

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF \^GILANCE.

viously allowed to make a few remarks, when he con-
fessed his guilt, but expressed no eontrition. The
sheiifT and his officers made all possible resistance,
but could not obtain the cooperation of any of the
citizens, as all were in sympathy with the Vigilance
Connuittec. This was tlie fii-st important action taken
by a newly organized Vigilance Connnittec, which
was Ibiined that month, with Signouret as president.
Thougli at so late a date, when justice had been ad-
ministered in their courts for a quarter of a century,
it was com])osed of over five hundred of the best and
most influential citizens in the place. In a card which
they published they defined their position and pur-
pose in the following terms:

"Our object in thus associating together is not to inaugurate mob law, as
wc most sincerely regret the necessity that compelled the organizatiou. We
do, however, now that the society has Ixjen organized, intend to protect the
life and property of innocent persons to the best of our ability ; and whenever,
in our judgment, after mature deliberation and without haste, any assassin
luiH been set free where the evidence should have convicted him, then, and
not till then, shall wo meddle with the course of the law. Wo are nut
actuated by any blood-thirsty motives. Our actions are based upon tlie
principles of Inimanity and justice, and we do not intend to depart from them ;
and while we, as law-abiding citizens, are in duty bouml to venerate the laws
under wliich we live, and be subordinated to the government, wo cannot an<l
will not submit to incompetency and iml>ecility in those who have been placed
in power to administer these laws ; and in the carrying-out of those stern reso-
lutions wo pledge our lives, our property, and our honor."

Others took a very different view of the matter, as
the following from the Oakland Transcript testifies:

"A communication in the Los Angeles News, in answer to the recent pro-
nunciameuto of the V^igilance Committee organized there, thus comes out upon
the Regulators: 'Is it ri^ht in the sight of God or man for any set of men to
band together to connnit murder? If the conimittct! wished to bring olTeml-
ors to justice, they siiould have organizid under the law, anil in aid of its
administration. Moral reformers should not set all morals and all law. huin;iii
and di\ine, at deliance. In their (irst manifesto the connuittec siiy in suli-
stani'o that they dt; not intend to take raiy further action unless, after tii J
by the courts, tliero is a failure of justice. Decidedly not ! That is, iiftrr
trial in the district and (ni]iri'nie courts a party is tried and acMiuitted of tin;
char^;o of iioniicidc! or other crime, a ooianiittec of confessed murderers will
eit in judgment of the case and ivverso tlie decision, and hang the acctiHcil

LAW AND THE PEOPLE.

513

n-
hc

CO,
LU'C

licli
cnt.

ail-
my,

and
liich

pur-

law, aa

^^. We
itcct the
hciicvcv,
assassin
;hcn, and
urc nut

ipou

the

)iu thcni ;
the laws
nnot anil
icu plactil
torn rese-

tter, as

tstilies;

Bccnt vvo-
j out ui><'u
lof men to
In" ollVnil-
liikl of it^
Uv. \uun:ui
|iy in ^^"''•
idtcv lull
,t us, "'■'>''■
twl of ^'"^
lerevrt will
[ho uecu!i<-il

and acquitted if the judgment of the courts does not square with their ideas
of right and law. Surely a blood-stained Daniel has come to judgment. If
an honest jury and learned judge mistake tlic law, is society any safer in the
hands of an ignorant association of green-grocers? If a leanied judge errs, it
is not very i^robable that ho will bo improved upon by a dealer in old clothes,
or that the old-clothes man will be any more honest than a sworn juror. It
was poor policy for tho committee to court discussion in the public press.
They arc tolerable stranglers but very bad logicians. The sooner they hide
themselves from the light of day the safer they will be.'"

These views accord with the opinion of a large and
highly respectable class in the community, but it seems
to me comprehensive and candid research points to
different conclusions. Situation and circumstances
are too often lost sight of Setting these aside in
the present instance, and regarding the question in
the abstract, is it right to band to commit murder?
that is to say, to execute capital punishment? De-
cidedly 3^es. The judge upon the bench is but tho
representative of men banded together to "commit
murder ;" the jury, in this sense, band to commit
murder. The law is but a machine made by the people ;
if it works well, so much the better for all concerned.
Those who made it rejoice in the perfection and effi-
ciency of their handiwork as much as any one; if it
tails in its purpose it is folly stubbornly adhering to it
to the demoralization or destruction of society. In
order to the right comprehension of this subject, the
superstition of the fixedness and fatality of forms of
law, amounting to unapproachable, untouchable neces-
sity, must be dispelled. Those who made the law
have the right at any moment, formally or informally,
legally or illegally, to abrogate it. The necessity to
adopt extreme measures is always to be deplored, is
always deplored most of all by those resorting to it.
ihit if they have not the right to throw aside a
worthless machine, then the machine is greater, more
inexorable and divine than the maker, which is
absurd. That district and supreme courts are beyond
the comprehension or control of the people is but
another form of the same superstition. Judges and

Pop. Tbib., Vol. I. 33

514

COUNTRY COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE.

juries are proverbially uncertain and liable to error.
The people, acting en masfte, are likewise subject to
mistake; but the people, being sovereign, are un-
restricted by forms which too often hamper judges
and trammel justice. If the people are sovereign at
all, they are sovereign always; if they have the right
to make laws, they have the right to suspend or annul
them, formally or informally, if they possess the power
and inclination to do so. The people are sovereign,
yesterday, to-day, and forever. God invests them with
this authority, and that without intervention of pope
or potentate. It is better to have a settled policy in
everything and work up to it; if the policy is bad
change it, without interference with custom and habit
if practicable, but if necessary at once and arbitrarily.

uu-

CHAPTER XXX.

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

Like one that on a lonesome road

Doth walk in fear and dread,
And, having once turned round, walks on

And turns no more hia head,
Because he knows a frightful fiend

Doth close behind him tread.

Coleridge.

Notwithstanding the strength and dignity given
to justice by the more calm but no less determined
tribunals of the larger cities, mobocracy was still the
almost universal remedy throughout the mining and
agricultural districts. Much machinery was out of
place where there were no jails, and there was a
directness about the business most refreshing when a
criminal was caught, tried, and executed all within an
hour. Nor was it alwa3's convenient or possible to
organize; hence justice continued to be administered
in various localities in the form and spirit of moboc-
racy. I will now continue the chronological record
of such instances as have come under my obstirvation
from. June 1851, where it was dropped in a former
chapter.

To the outward observer the lines between \igil-
iince and the mob spirit were not in every instance!
clearly ap])arent. For example, when two In'iians
and two white men were publicly whipped at Benicia
the 15th of July 1851 for robbing trunks and steal-
ing horses, the latter being likewise branded on the
thigh, the actors may or may not have been members
oP a vigilance committee.

516

E^ELICmES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

iii I

Vii I

An Indian who on the 1st of August attempted
to shoot a Mr Verro, was taken to Johnson's rancho,
tried before a jury of the people, sentenced to thirty-
lashes, and the punishment inflicted before a large
number of his tribe there present. Considering the
circumstances the punishment was mild. In many
localities the firing at a white man would have in-
volved the massacre of the entire raneheria of the
natives who did it. Notwithstanding which, if every
white man who had unjustly or unjustifiably shot at
or shot an Indian had been given thirty lashes,
there would have been many sore backs in the great
west, to say nothing of the east, during the period of
its pacification, and subsequently.

At Ophir a man named Haynes was arrested and
tried b^ the people the Gth of August on the charge
of robbmg a miner of four hundred dollars. The evi-
dence was wholly circumstantial, and the jury could
not conscientiously convict the prisoner. Without
intending to hang him, they thought possibly they
might extort a confession of guilt. Taking the man
to a tree near by, they threw a rope over the limb and
told Haynes to prepare for death. It was a ghastly
joke. The poor fellow protestetl and prayed, and
finding they could get nothing out of him, his tor-
mentors finally let him go. A very moderate mob.

In the prison at Monterey on the 9th of August
occurred a killing which approaches nearer to murder
than does even mob law. William Otis Hall, alias
Bill Woods, had been adjudged to death by the
people the April previous for horse-stealing. Rescued
from the mob by the authorities, Hall was lodged in jail.
Malcing his escape, he was retaken, tried, and sentenced
by the court to four years' imprisonment. About mi
night of the date first named a party of eight men
masked, with scrapes thrown about them, broke int
the jail, gagged and bound Marshal Clapp, pinioned
the prisoner, then winding a hide reata round his
neck they tightened it to his death. This act was

(i-

()

VARIOUS PUNISHMENTS.

817

condemned by the entire press tliroughout the state
From the evidence before me I am inclined to the
belief that the perpetrators of this deed wore not
citizens of the place, but accomplices of the prisoner,
who adopted this means to prevent confessions im-
plicating themselves.

On the 10th of this same month James Graham
and Alexander Leslie went out prospecting and hunt-
ing in the hills near Greenwood Valley. Leslie carried
on his person six hundred dollars, of which circum-
stance Graham was cognizant, and he determined to
obtain the money. Falling a little behind, Graham
l){)inted his gun in the direction of Leslie and fired,
the shot just grazing Leslie's hair. Graham hastened
to apologize, saying that he aimed at a squirrel. But
sliortly after, while Leslie was stooping to pick up liis
mining tools, Graham fired again, with buttei' success,
the ball entering Leslie's body. Rifling the victim's
pockets, Graham started for San Francisc(j, wliero ho
deposited the stolen gold-dust, with twelve hundred
dollars of his own. Leslie's absence excited the sus-
picions of friends, ami they pursued and captui-ed
Graham, who denied all knowledge of the fate of
Leslie. In the mean time Leslie, though left for dead,
was not mortally wounded, and revived sufficiently to
make his way after some days back to town. When
he confronted Graham, as denial was no longer of usi-,
(Jraham explained that the shooting w^as accidental,
and supposing Leslie was dead, he thought he could
make as good use of the money as any one. The ex-
planation did not satisfy the miners, and Graham's
death was at once determined upon. To use the lan-
guage of the times from the mouth of a by-stander,
"They gave him a big drink of brandy, set him on a
box in a wagon, ornamented his neck with a hempen
tic, and sent him cross-lots to where all murderers go."

Hugh Morgan about this time was convicted of
robbery at I^ed Mountain Bar, on the Tuolumne. He
was given twenty-five lashes and driven from the place.

i 1 1

SIS

INFKLICITIES ANl) ALLEVIATIONS.

i. tJ

At the Scptoinlxr oluctioii of 1 80 1 a crowd of
voters was gatlioivd in fiont of a saloon at Granite
Basin, smoking, drinking, and entertaining each other
witli rude jests and noisy laughter. Somewhat apart
stood Aaron Bradbury, a hard-visagcd, cross-grained
man, but withal honest and industrious. He had
gained the ill-will of his fellows by his unsocial and
morose manner rather than by any real wrong-doing.
As the crowd became excited by liquor, their (Conver-
sation turned on Bradbury, and one story i olio wed
another, accusing him of falsehood and of improper
intimacy with a married woman. Hearing his name
used, he drew near and demanded an explanation;
angry words ensued. With or without sufficient cause
he drew a pocket-knife and stabbed one or two men,
each of whom was more powerful than himself, in-
flicting several wounds, but none of a serious nature.
Maddened at the sight of blood, the crowd rushed
upon him, threw him down, and kicked and i)ounded
liim until the most brutal nature should have been
satisfied. But this was not enough. Binding him to a
chair, they hurried him off to hang him to the nearest
tree. Protestations were of no avail ; no extenuating
circumstance would be considered; nor would they
listen to his prayer for trial by jury. Reaching u
suitable place, they released him from the chair and
stood him beneath an oak-tree. Then tying round
his neck one end of a rope and throwing the other
end over a limb, twenty strong men took hold with a
will and awaited the signal. At that critical moment
three men stepped foi'ward. One drew a knife and
severed the rope, while the others faced the crowd.
There was a quiet but bloody resc^lution in their eyes,
and the half-drunken hanucnien saw it and wavered.
For six hours they faced each other, those of the law
and those of lawless passion, until with cooler brain
and restored reason the crowd gradually dispersed,
leaving the law to dispose of the case in a less sum-
mary manner.

fit ■

AT MOKELUMNE HILL.

510

Ling
hey

cr a

and
ouncl
tlier
itli a
niont

and
owd.
eyes,
ored.
c law
brain
Jl'scd,

auni-

During an all-night dohauch at Weavervillo two
nion of Sydney, Ilardgravus and Seymour, waliced
hither and thither, they knew not where. In the
morning the former missed a can of gold-<lust worth
a thousand dollars, and accused his comrade of the
theft. Accordingly Seymour was taken to the historic
tree, and was there twice elevated and twice lowered.
Urged to confess guilt, he continued to declare his
iimocence. He was finally permitted to escape, and
shortly after Hardgraves found his gold-dust in the
chaparral where he himself had droj)ped it.

On board the steamboat on the way from ^larys-
ville to San Francisco in October was a passenger, a
man of Sydney named Griffin, who stole a Colt re-
volver, which after diligent search was found upon his
])erson. The bluster of indignant bravado which Mr
Griffin raised on being chargeil with the irregularity
did not save him. On the spot a court was organized
by the passengers, before which the man was tried
jmd found guilty. Ther-e happened to be on board an
unfortunate lUinoisian, sick and penniless, who was
on his way to the hospital. It was ordered by the
court that the thief pay to the sick man the sum of
one hundred dollars, which the man of Sydney was
only too glad to do, trusting his liberty to see the
sum restored front the first unguarded dust upon
which he could lay his hands.

One of those wild spasms of divine right so fre-
(juent in frontier connnunities occurred at Mokelumne
llill on the 1 5th of October. The constable iA' the
town, Donahue, for fighting arrested one Joseph
Alexander, an Israelitish Pole twenty-five years of
age, a man of considerable talent, well educated, and
specially adept in speaking modern languages. On
their way to prison the l\)le was somewhat saucy, and
the constable, a good-hearted, well meaning, but ])as-
sionate man, struck the prisoner with a revolver, which
exploded, but without injury. Another shot, acci-
dental or otherwise, took eifect in the prisoner's side,

520

INFELICITIES xVND ALLEVIATIONS.

'I a

:,; F :

which caused death amidst the most excruciating pain.
The people were profoundly moved. Donahue was
taken and tried by a jury of twelve, with two citizens
as presiding judges, with counsel on either side. It
was during the trial that the Pole died, which event
terminated the deliberations of the tribunal. Throui^h-
out the streets of the town a gong was sounded, sum-
moning tlie inhabitants to assemble and determine
what should be done with tliu constable. Many were
for immediate execution, but the majority favoring
more lenient measures, he was delivered to the au-
thorities. Such action, often repeated, on the part of
the people showed at all events the presence of an
earnest desire to do light.

zVt Mud Springs, near Placerville, on the 8th of
November an old man named Clark was attacked in
his tent by Abner J. Dixon, a Wisconsin youth nine-
teen years of age, \vlio cut him fearfully with a
hatchet, robbed him of two hundred dollars, and left
him for dead. By the print of his footsteps in the
damp earth the felon was traced to his own tent, near
which the old man's money was found buried. Dixon,
who though young in years was old in sin, was
promptly arrested, tried, and executed by the people,
protesting his innocence to the last.

The miners about Sonera were greatly troubled
with robbers and cutthroats during the autumn of
this year. On the night of the 1 4th of November
there was a regular butchery at Turnersville. The
brothers Steward were badly cut and shot. One
Boose was killed on the s[)()t, and another, Olin, died
next day. One of the gang, Domingo, was cauglit
and hanged by the people immediately, previous to
which he had confessed his guilt and exposed his com-
rades. Others of the band, which was composed of
both Mexicans and Americans, were afterward cap-
tured and executed. This was the hot-bed of assas-
sination and rol)bery, and for a time the law did not
pretend to interfere with popular executions. It was

OPENING OF 1852.

521

Bimpl y a war between those who lived by honest work
and those who followed robbery as a profession. A
party of four Mexicans out on the war-path in this
vicinity committed thirty murders within two weeks.

So much for 1851; now turn to 1852. For horse-
stealing at El Monte and thereabout, a man calling;
himself Smith was arrested on the 2d of February.
After two or three days' imprisonment in Los An-
m^oles he was taken from jail by the people, who
gave him a trial and adjudged him seventy- eight
lashes. A singular popular freak attended the exe-
cution of the sentence. An Indian was appointed
to inflict the punishment, when Smith objected and
asked that a white man should be substituted. Ten
dollars was offered to any one who would perform
the repulsive task. The offer was accepted by an
American, whose dress betokened destitute circum-
stances. No sooner was the work accomplished than
he was seized by the crowd, placed in a blanket,
and tossed violently in the air. This was repeated
several times, when the poor fellow was made to
fall so heavily on his head and shoulders as to se-
verely injure him and render him insensible. The
reason alleged for their brutal conduct was that any
American who would offer to whip one of his own
countrymen for money deserved such treatment.

It was unsafe at one time for even a native Ameri-
can to steal in California; but men of dusky skin in-
dul'ans: in such an offence were almost sure to iind,
ill some historic tree, A[)ollo's best gift — death. In
the autumn of 1851, at Newton, a black man was
found guilty of theft and whi[)ped; in the spring of
1852 he was found guilty of theft and hanged.

Two young men, supposed to be Americans, rode
Into Murphy Diggings the 8th of February on
horses that the people suspected were stolen, and it
was determined to watch them as dangerous charac-
ters. On that night three houses were entered and

'\ Hi '

i ^'^

522 INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

robbed of five hundred dollars in money. The next
morning the suspected men attempted to leave town
in different directions, but were arrested and brouglit
before Mr Vanderslice, who acted as judge for the
people's court. The guilt of the young men was easily
proved, as the money was found in their possession.
They received a trial and were sentenced to death.
Neither would reveal his name or native place, and
they were hanged without making any confession.
One of them, on being questioned a moment previous
to his execution, said with an oath that he would not
confess to anything. "But," he added, "understand
that I am one of the brothers; you can put that in
your pipe and smoke it." It was afterward ascer-
tained that they were not Americans, but criminals
of the worst kind from Sydney.

A poor teamster came off the plains with a single
yoke of oxen, which he sold for one hundred dollars
in gold-dust to a person who left the place innnediately
after the i)urchase. The same day a })urse containing
one hundred dollars in the same kind of dust was
stolen, and the })oor man from the plains was sus-
pected, arrested, tried, convicted, and deprived of his
purse, with thirty lashes on liis bare hack. Burning
under the wrong, no sooner was the whijiping ovei'
than, seizing a pistol, the teamster placetl it to the
head of the man who first at^cuscd him: "You are tlie
man who stole that money!" he exclaimed; "I know
it. Now confess, and quickly, or as sure as there is ii
God in heaven I'll scatter your brains as I'ar as i)o\V(l(i'
will blow tliem!" Tlie threatened man saw murder in
the eyes of his accuser; there was no r.nstaking it.
In tnitli he was guilty; so he drew I'rom his ptx-lcct
the stolen <lust, whereupon tlu^ enraged ci-owd sci/.cd
and hanged him to the nearest tri^e, and raising on thi;
spot a eontiibution of seventeen hundred dollars pre-
sented it to tin,' beaten teamster.

Some distance .south of Stockton, on the San J<i;i-
quin Kiver, a negi'e;;s set lire to a hos[)ital out of

MARYSVILLE IN MARCH.

523

next
town
>ught
r the

ssion.
loath.
3, and
;ssion.
Dvioua
Id not
rstand
hat in
ascer-
niinals

, suiglc

dollars

idiatuly

itahiin«;

.ist was

as sus-
of his

^urniui:;
\cr over
to the
arc the
I know
lorc is a
powdci'
\Vi\cv in

kin;4 '*•
i)()i'.\('t

I sei/t'*l

;• on till'

avs pie

fan .1< 'Ji-
ll out »'t'

spite. As she was known to have done it, the pro-
jirictor and liis friends wore about to han;^^ her on the
spot, yet wlien she fell on her knees and confessed her
crime the sentence was changed to whipping; but the
wliip being placed in the hands of a too vigorous
American, she died under its blows.

The miners of Big Canon, wlio missed several arti-
cles Tom time to time in March, having discovered
some of the stolen property in the possession of a
certain person, arrested and tried the culprit, and sen-
tenced him to receive twenty-six lashes on the bare
hack. The punishment being duly administered, a
committee w^as then appointed to show him the way
out of camp. Procuring a Chinese gong, they pa-
raded him up and down the street, calling upon all
the people to come and look at him, that they might
know him forever after; then they conducted him
two miles on his way, and parted from him with the
injunction that should he ever show himself again in
that neighborhood he might expect to be hanged.

jNIarysville was the scene of great excitement IVom
nine o'clock on the morning of ^larch 20th till three
in the afternoon. The streets were thronged. A thief
named Tanner, under arrest for grand larceny, at-
tempted to forfeit his bail and escape with the plun-
der which he had secreted. He was captured, with
the proof of his guilt upon him. A peojjle's court
tiied and condemned him, and demanded his life.
The mayor endeavored in vain to restore (juiet. At
last he produced some little eifect by bringing out the
(hstressed wife and cliihh'eii of the condennied. 1'hen
threatening to use force of arms, the authoi'ities took
the prisoner and j)lac(!d him in a bnihiing, before
which Recorder Watkins stood witli a cocked ]iistol,
intimidating tiie near api)roach of any. The build-
ing was surrounded by the infuriattMl crowd, but
Tanner, securely ironed in jail, was now beyond their
rt aeji, and the multitude were constrained to disperse.

A crowd of miners, numbering two or three hun-

524

INPELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

dred, collected round the jail in Coloina on the 15th
of April and demanded the surrender of two prison-
ers, one Henry George from Sydney, and the other
William ^Miller, a negro, who were indicted for steal-
m*x over seven thousand dollars. The sheriff was ab-
sent impanelling a jury, and the jailer was forced to
comply with the demand. As soon as they had ob-
tained possession of the men the crowd hurried them
off to an adjacent tree, and without ceremony hanged
first the negro and then the white man. Then re-
turning to tlie jail they demanded Dougherty, another
prisoner whose trial was in progress at the time; in-
deed the jury were then deliberating over a verdict.
The miners sent word to the jury that they would l)e
allowed fifteen minutes to Itring in a verdict, as they
should hang Dougherty at the expiration of that
time. The jury soon pronounced a verdict of guilty,
and the prisoner was sentenced to ten years in the statc-
pi is((n. When the sentence was announced the crowd
made a rush for Dougherty, but were quieted by
I'homas Robertson, whose eloquent appeal induced
them to disperse.

White Oak Springs was the theatre of one of those
nnirder and lynching scenes which Iiave l)een enacted
in almost every town in California. James Hughlett
made frequent and al)usive attacks upon the cliaractcf
of another boarder at the hotel, Abner Spencer by
name, who on the 29th of Ai^ril resented one ni"
Hugldett's remarks, collaring liim and throwing him
to tlie floor; while down, HughU'tt drew a knife and
stabbed Spencer so severely that he died. Hughlett.
was arrested, tried by the people, hurried to a trei',
and hanged.

Two Frenchmen while asleep were murdered near
Jackson, Calaveras County, in May. A Mexican
named Chevorino was suspected as one of tlnj
murderers and arrested a few weeks afterward. A
pn'liminary examination was held before Justice Mc-
Dowell, and the man was connnitted for trial. The

CATALOGUE OF 1852.

62ft

15tli
ison-
)tlier
jtcal-
ls ab-
ed to
d ob-
thom
angcd
3n rc-
lotbcr
ic; in-
crdict.
•uld bo
LS they
f that
cuiltv,
0 state -
3 crowd
ttcd b_\
induced

those

nactcd

urrldett

laractir

licer by

one "'

him

lite an<l
U'Thlett
a tree,

cd near
dcxieau

of the
ird. A
pice M*"

I. The

])eople, impatient of dehiy and satisfied of his ^uiit,
took him from the authorities, led him to a tree in
jVont of the Astor House, put a rope around his neck,
and attempted to liang him. In their hasty prepara-
tions they had neglected to tie his hands. Catching
the rope, he loosened it about his throat and tliey
were obliged to lower him to the ground. He then
look advantage of the opportunity to retract his prot-
rstation of innocence and to make full confession of
liis guilt. Then he was hanged in peace.

Four Indians attacked a man who w^as travcllinir
iiDni Downieville to Maiysville the 30th of May; tliey
t<liot him full of arrows and tlicn clubbed him to
(loath. Next day the miners made a formal demand
(111 the chief, threatening to annihilate tlie raneherui if
the murderers were not delivered up. Four warriors
were given the white men, wdio found guilty and
luinoed three of them, thus inauffuratinjj a new svs-
torn for the adjustment of Indian difficulties in tliesc
parts; for in less than a fortnight thereafter, that
is to say on the 12th of June, when one (^onistock
was killed with arrows l)ctwcen Marysville and
Bridgeport, the chief, Wcmah, was t(^l(l that lie
must produce the murderers or be murdered hlmsiiH'.
Choosing the former alternative, he delivered two of
thi; tribe to the people of French Corral, who applied
the hempen remedy incontinently.

James Edmondson, commonly known as Jim Ugly,
was executed l)}* the [)eople at Yankee Jim in 1852.
Here as elsewhere during the grand carnival, fights
of (n'cry description In wlih^i life was freely risked
uirI often lost were of frequent occurrence. Now
and then, when a killing occurred of a nature more
» xasperating than usual, or if the slayer was a des-
ji'iiite character, a noted desperado, or a gamblei', or
if the man killed was respected or popular, there
Would be a trial and an execution; but if the com-
batants were c([ually matched, and the tight fair, but
little notice was usually taken of deadly results.

526

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

r ■

Early in Juno Mr Hoofins, a valuable citizen of
Nicolaus, was murdered by a negro named Hideout.
The man was arrested and after a trial was hanged
by the people.

John Jackson, from the upper part of Plumas River,
went on the evening of June 10th to the house of
one Baker and his wife, a Swiss couple in Yuba City,
and asked for food and a bed, which were given him.
Next morning Baker went to Hock Farm, leaving
Jackson in the house. Baker returned at noon, and
his wife was missing; he was met by Jackson, who
tried to shoot him, but the pistol missed fire. Baker
went after his pistol, but that was gone. Meanwhile
Jackson took a horse and rode off. Baker took an-
other and followed, having first alarmed the neigh-
borhood. Jackson was soon caught, and on him were
found thirty dollars and Baker's pistol. The body
of the woman was discovered, with marks on tli«'
throat and three bullet-holes under the left breast.
A law jury sat upon the case; but without waitiiii^'
for its verdict, the enraged people threw a lasso ruum!
Jackson's neck and hanged him to the nearest tree

One night near Weaver Creek the apartment i>f'
a Mexican gambler named Lopez was entered by tivi^
burglars. One of them kept a pistol at Lopez' head
while the others rilled his trunk of its contents. Tin
robbers were arrested in the act. A jury chosen from
amonij: the citizens sentenced them to thirtv-nin^i
lashes each, which were duly admini.stered.

A ^lexican boy named Cruz Flores was also ti'ieil
by the peoj)l(! at Jackson on the 1 Ith of June as a con-
federate of Cheverino. Guilt was not proved to thcii'
satisfaction, so they turned him over to the civil au-
thorities. Several hundred Frenchmen were })reseni ,
armed with double-barrelled shot-guns and ])istols, an<l
when the decision of the peo[)le's jury was aimounced,
the countrymen of the murdered man made a ru>li
for the prisoner, demanding his life. During the
struggle the bov's arm was broken. After a hall'

CAT.VLOGUE OF 1852.

Til-

tVKMl

la coii-

1) tlu'ir

il au-

rcscm .
lis, un<l
luncctl,
li ru>!i

k til''

^° hall-

hour's contest the infuriated Frenchmen succeeded in
capturing the boy, and dragging him to a tree they
hani^ed him, one of them holdinj; to his leijs until life
was cxtmct,

A man named Williams was discovered taking
nioncy from the clothing of a man who was asleep at
the Placer Hotel, Placcrville, at daybreak the loth
of June. The boarders administered the punishment,
banishin*; him from town after having jriven him
kicks, blows, and twenty-five lashes on the bare back.
This was the third case of the kind at Placervillo
that spring.

A man named Dunn was arrested upon suspicion
of having stolen twenty-five thousand dollars from
Dii^iis and Anderson at Caclie Creek on the 1 7th of
June. He was taken to a tree and strangled a little
to extort a confession ; a second and a third trial uf the
same kind were made, the last nearly proving I'atal.
As he persisted in protesting his innocence and total
ignorance of the theft the torture was discontinued
and the prisoner liberated.

A Frenchman named Raymond deliberately mur-
tlercd a Chinaman at VtW Bar on the Cosumnes in
June. He was tried by a iurv «»f twelve men and
was innnediately hanged by Lhe people. Few in-
stances of this kind are on record where a wliite man
jtroniptly receives his deserts for the murder (tr nial-
treatnjcnt of a Chinaman or a native, and it s[)eaks
volumes for the fair dealings of the niineis of that
locahty.

The 4th of July this year came on Sunday, and was
celebrated at Eui'e!:a '>y eliastising a fellow named
Francis Boyd, who h;.u stolen a quantity of barley,
fie was given a dozt-n lashes on the bare back, and
warned to roll up his blankets and leave the diggings
within thirty minutes.

'i'lie town of Columbia has its Broadway, as has
evi'ry mining-caujp by whatever name called; and
gathered round a tree standing at the upper end of

028

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

it. •

■

this busy street on the 7th of July miglit have been
seen an excited crowd with some object in their
midst which commanded their violent attention. It
was an old man, prostiate beneath the tree, half
strangled by the rope which encircled his neck as it
hung loosely from a limb. Every now ami then his
tormentors would seize the rope and pull upon it until
the old man was lifted a few feet from the ground,
when they would let him down again. WJiy was
this? The miners were by no means a cruel people;
children and old age, next to women, connnanded
llieir tender sympathy. This seemed harsh treatment.
Assuredly it went against their feelings; but the}'
felt that crime must be put down at any cost, and sus-
picion pointed to the old man as guilty of crime. It
appears that one Yi^tes, on his way from his claim to
the town, dropped 11- purse, containing twelve hun-
dred dollars in gold-dust. Near the spot where he
thought he nuist have dropped it the prisoner was
seen to pick up something. On being questioned he
stiuitly denied any knowledge of it; nevertheless tJie
magistrate committed him for trial. Speculation
then began to spread about the town as to the prob-
able guilt of the accused, until curiosity getting the
better of discretion they proceeded to the [)rison and
l)orrowed the prisoner from the law until they should
satisfy themselves. For a time, between the sliort
intervals of his suspension, the old man continued to
tleny his guilt; finally, fearing lest one of the up-
liftinjjs should be a trille too lonu', and being u:enerallv
uncomfortable under the treatment, he confessed, dis-
covered to them the money, and was banished.

Mob law in its reckless course aflbrdetl oj^portunity
for the dis})lay of personal vindictiveness, and even
for shielding the guilty, the accuser sometimes him-
self beinu: the criminal. Such an instance occurred
seven miles from Mariposa in Augu.st, when Moore
and Company's store on Sherlock Creek was entered
and robbed of nine hundred dollars. Suspicion fell on

CATALOGUE OF 1853.

5jy

an old man named Johnson, who was at once arrustud
by a mob instigated by a young man named Carrico.
Johnson was taken to a tree some Httle distance away,
and being suspended, was strangled until life was
nearly extinct, while Carrico and others demanded
that he should tell where he had secreted the money.
The unfortunate man denied any knowledge of rob-
bery; though cruelly lashed, he would not retract the
statement. Carrico then proposed that they should
lay him on a bed of hot embers, and at the same time
use other tortures too cruel to mention, but the crowd
refused to indulge him further and released the pris-
oner.

A few days after, Carrico left the place under cir-
cumstances that aroused the suspicions of the miners.
They pursued him, and U[)on his arrest discovered on
his person the gold for the theft of which [loor John-
sou had been tortured. Carrico received a trial before
;i legal court and was sentenced to five years in the
>l ate-prison: a less punishment than his villainy seemed
to deserve. If the same mob that had so uni'eelingly
jiersecuted the old man had turned its vengeance upon
this callous wretch, ai)plying to him tlie ti'eatnient hi'
had himself proposed lor another, the connnunity would
have symi)atliized with them, and would have upheld
their proceedings. ♦

Christopher Ferril, living in a cabin on Murphy
(iuK'h, Calaveras County, was discovered on the 8th
< r January 1853 to have considerable stolen property
ill his possession. He was given twenty-live lashes
"11 the bare back and driven from the place.

David Spence's rancho, on the Salinas River, was
visited by some Mexican horse-thieves infesting that
section. Pursued by the mayordomo and others, two
Mexicans were caught hiding under the bushes be-
tween Gilroy and Pajaro. They were bound and
oouimitted to the ^Monterey jail for trial; but the in-
habitants of San Juan preferred to see justice awarded

Pop. Tbib., Vol. I. 31

IB9i'

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

My '"

at once to tlie scoundrels whose depredations had
cost thenj so dear, and taking them fi'oni tlie officers
they were hanged on a gallows the 8tii of February.
Three Chinamen went into a store at Mud Springs
on the 11th of February for the ostensible j)urpose of
making some purchases. While the proprietor was
showing some boots to one of tliem in another room,
tiic others took the money-drawer and left the store.
The merchant soon discovered his loss, and had litth;
difficulty in tracing the Chinamen to a tent, when-
they were found dividing the nine hundred dollars
which thev had stolen. Thev were at once arrested,

•' t,' '

taken to the niain street (jf the town, and jit tlie de-
mand of the excited assenddage were haiii^ed.

Near Shasta, at a place called Whiskey Creek, a
barkeejH'i- in Aj)ril became exasperated at sonu^ insult
fj-«»m a fe]low-(Mtizen and sliot him. He was seized at
once by the peo])le and hanged within a few hours.

In April t\v(> jSTexican horse-thieves weie arrested
near Maitinez and hanged by a mob.

During tlu! sj)iiiig of 1 Hr>8 there was a gang of
Chil(>an desperadoes encamped at a creek two miles
below the town of Jacicson. They [)retcnde(l to work
in the mines oecasionally, but in reality depended on
robbery for a livelihood. A conn)any of Chinese
worked near the Chilean encampment. On the 27tli
of 'luly the Chileans made a riiid upon the Chinese,
killinjjf one man and stealing several hundred dollars.
One of the Chileans was captured l)y the Chinese,
who sent to town for assistance. Fifty armed nun
eame to the rescue; when they arrived they found the
]»risoner being tortured by the infuriated Chinese.
Tlie Chilean was taken to town and kept in custody
until morning, wIkju he was executed in the presence
of a thousand people. Vengeance extraordinary ^^ .is
directed against the Mexicans, Chileans, and Indians.
A complete catalogue of crime with the sharp, swift
vengeance of self-appointed justice, would fill ;i
volume. In the southern mines a week's record et'

CATALOCJUF-: OF 1853.

atrocities coming tinrlcr the observation of one man
<'onsisto(l of tliroo Mexicans liangcd on suspicion of
assassination: sc^von Mexicans sliot in a ijfamMiniLr-
snloon on a charge of clieating at cards; two Mexicans
lian^jud for robbinji: a claim; one man lianj'ed for
murder, and a rancheria of natives massacred for
killing and eating a stray hoi'se -pretty livi iy but(!liery
foi- one locality.

A quarrel occurred at American Flat on the •J.'.d
of May between a jSTcxican and one Jelfnv Lewis
over a game of cards. The nien were separahul afti'r
!in exchange of blows. Next day tlnj Afexican ap-
proached Lewis, and without a word shot him dead
and immediately escajuid. A party |)msued him,
hut failing in their atteni}*! to ca[)ture him, ai-
losted two of his (;vil associate One of them
made his escape, but the other was tried by mob
law, found guilty enough foi* all ])ractical nurjjoses,
and hanged.

A Chilean vaqucro at Mokelunuie Hill wns sus-
pected in June of having stolen stock fi-om Jose[)h
Kirk and his brothei-, ranchei's in San Joaipiin, and
was seized and j)unish(;(l by them. With the assist-
ance of McKee Haney the; ( 'liilean was subjecte(l to a
sevei'c beating, and his bare back, feai-fully lacei'ated,
was exposed to the sun for several hours, lie was
at last liberated, when he returned to his home, where
his story excited the sympathy and indignation of his
rountrymen. They raised ilw. sum of one hundi-cid
and iifty ounces of gold-dust to defray the t'X})ense
of a jirosecution, as they wished to see what sort of
justice the courts administei'ed. In the mean time
"'He of the Kirks appeared on the street in AFo-
Ivohmme Hill, and was recognized by a mounttnl
Chilean, who quickly threw a lariat over his head,
lie would have dragged him to his death but for the
interference of the vaquero who had beeti so brutally
tieated by him. The vaquero insisted that his enemy
should have a fair trial before the courts. Thercu])on

Ih \\

: i;

632

INFELICITIES AND ALLES^IATIONS.

rill

Kill; was liberated, and tliougli })ursuod, succoodcd in
iiuikinj^ liis cHcape.

A drunken lellow named Vivian assaulted Marto,
a S[)aniard, at Condenuied Bar on the 4tli of July,
v'licn Marto in scH'-def'en<;i' stabbed Vivian. The
mob spirit was at onco aroused, and tliouiijli the
wounded man was still living, tli;- |)oo[)lo determined
that the Spaniard should be banned. Marto, actinj^
uj)on the advice of .ludj^e Peterson, who tiioUL^ht the
deed justiliable, attempted eseapc; by j)luiitjfin!j^ into
the river. iJet'ori' he was hall' across he was shot at
and killed. A by-stander [)ronounced the j)roceedinir
an outrage; he had no sooner expressed the opinion
than he was killed by the mob. In their unreasoning
blood-thirstiness tluiy talked of taking the life even
of Judge IVterson.

But vei-y dilferent were some of their executions
where calumess, oi'der, and philosophic coolness char-
actei'ized all theii' j)roceediiigs. A g(;iitleman at tlu;
diggings learned that a man had ix'eii arrested for
robberv in a minhborinn' cami) and was to be executed.
It ci'eated no excitement, i)ut as lie was cu.rious to see
the affair he walked over to the locality. Unac(|uainte(l
with any one, he sjjoke to a man standing apart from
the others.

" Will you tell me which is the man to be lumged?"

" I believe it's I, sir," was the reply, without change
of countenance. Half an hour afterward he was
hanging from a tree, and the conununity quietly dis-
persed.

John Clare and Andrew Cracovitch, fishermen,
had a serious rpiarrel about their fish-tackle on the
IGth of August 1853. Clare angrily walked away,
and procuring a pistol concealed himself behind some
lumber, where he lay in wait for Cracovitch. Soon
after Cracovitch passed, and Clare tired, killing him
instantly. lie was arrested and placed in jail, wher(
ho boldly acknowledged the assassination. On the
following day the mob dragged him from his cell, and

catal(m;uk of i^.^.

■cLvr

was

tiiking him to the place wliciv \\v luul shotC'racovitch,
hanged hiiu tliei-e.

Spanish Ciiailey, a biill-fij^Miter, convictefl hy a
people's jury '"t' niunler at (iibsiMiville in Auufiist,
when brought forth Inr execution, though he denied
that he was guilty, manifested not the slighest emo-
tion. Binding the handkerchief over his t^yes with
his own hands, when all was ready he threw himself
from the platfoi-m. [n this trial and ex» cutiou the
people of (jiibsonville were entitled to praise for one
thing: from daylight until after the ex(>cution every
store in the j)laee refused to sell li(pior, and the <'on-
sequcnce was that of the thousand men present l)ut
two were intoxicated, and they were in that condition
betbre coming upon the ground.

During the month of October two Irishmen made
a complaint against two Frenchmen, whom they
accused of havinu' stolen iifte(Mi hundred dollars fi-om
them.

not
However tliey wc re arrested, and wetc being taken i'nv
trial to Sonora by the constable when they were met
by a, mob of loafers and gamblers that the Irishmen
had collected, and upon their demand the constable
was forced to i'elin(piish his j)ris()ners. The mob tlien
j-roceeded to a large trt'c, wlu>re they sus])t'nded tlu;
Frenchmen so that their feet just touched the ground,
ho[»ing to make them contess. Other l^'renchmen
stood by and urged their c<)nntrymeu to admit their
guilt, but only received their reiterated as.sertions of
innocence. The piisoners w ;re at last liberated, but
not until their friiiids had ])romised to bi; resjxynsible
lor the fifteen hundred dollars in case the men were
found guilty after a fair trial. It was thought possi-
ble that the li'ishmen's story of the robbery was with-
out foundation, and that this method was used in the
hopes of extorting money from the Frenchmen.

During this same month a Frenchman who ap-
peared not entirely in his right mind, at or neai' Yreka

The Frenchmen were industrious men of good
character, and wire not generally believed o'uiltv.

534

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

coiumittod lu»inici<le. Ho was arrested and hanged
by a i)arty from (iroenhorn Creek, under circumstances
too (lisii^ustinj^' to be described.

Some Spuiiish des[)eradoes while in Alvarado on the
2)](l of Xovembi'r fired into a hotel; then [)roceeding
to the Catholic church they broke all the windows.
After this mischief they started for the mountains,
and lia|)i)ciiini>' to meet an American, Fraidi Devol,
lired at him, two shots passing' through his coat.
Devol with some iVicnds |)ursue(l the Spaniard s wlio
made a desi)erate efibi-t to chide them. The Americans
finally su<'cceded in c-atchint,^ one of them .ind brought
him back to Alvarado, where a prcliminarv trial was
held. At midni!H"ht on the 1 ;")th the citi/(ii.> itrocecdrd

to ih

ic jail, ()\'erj»owercd the guai-d, ;ind ta!;mij;' the
pi'isoiK'r t(t .Vlameda bridn'c, Iian^ed him.

On a \o\cnibci- Sunday in m saloon at Columl)!a
an Ltaliaii invited :in American to <b'ink. The latter
refused- thi' Italian w<»uld force him, but in retuiii

reci'ived a s( \'ere

i>\\ in

the f;

ice,

lis

infurlat 'd

th.

Ital

Kill th.'it

lie

klille :i

lid killed him.

upon the ,\meiiean with :i,

he murderer was imnie(

liatel

arresied by a constable, i)Ut the e.\cited miners wresti'd
tlu! |)risoner from the ofljcci- of the law, drau^Li-ed him

bv the hair throU"'h the strc-c^tf

i.( •

a ti'ee

>itiiat(

on a 111 I

; haiiircu liiiii.

le liml) lirealciiin', lin

lie

ever, befor( life v.as extiiicT, and (he passions of t
peo])le haviuij^ cooled meanwhile, (!iey thoiiL^'ht ht'ttir
of their course, formed tlK'iiiselves into a Jury, tried
and convicted the prisoner, and then turned him oni r
for punishment to the cixil aulhoiitie.-

ei'e Were *>•(»(

)d Chin.'tmeii and bad (Miinameniii
those days -more [;articularly baxl ( "hinanien. -loliii's
favorite rascalit\' was the robbiii''' (»f shiii-e-boxes.
Sometimes the miners did not clean up their wa

Sll-

inii's for severa

1 di

IVS or Weeivs

al a tiiiK'. but left th

gold with the debris at the bottom of the sluices, and
tln^se the Chinamen used to like to clean up llieiii
selves at iiiLrht, when no one saw them. rnforln

THE CASE OF PETER NICHOLAS.

535

uately for thoiu, .six of their imiiibcr were cauj^lit at
this pastime one Saturday night on French Hill bv
those who had lonj; been watchin<' for them. Two of
tlieni were broujrht to the [)ost and given fifty lashes
each, and tlieir queues taken from them: the others
sli[)[)ed from tlie fingers of the avengers, 'i'his taught
both the good and bad Chinamen a lesson. The lattei-
were induced to be more circumspect in their stealing,
or more especially in ihv'w escaping, while the former
W(.re not backward thereaftei' in tying to a tree and
whip[)ing any of their own number wlu'uever occasion
seemed in their eyes t<> demand it.

ted

1 ! ! 1 1

ited

the

tter

•ie.l

• Ml'

'U m

•hn's

)\es.

ash-

thr

au'l

lelii

)rtn

Sunday was an uueasy day of rest for the iiiiiiei'
life was di\idi'(l, not uiie(|ually in many case

whose

between work and wickedm^ss. Thouu'h not a workiiiijf-
<lay, its sacrediiess had been left at home, and it v,as
now made th<' sea|>e-goal of all the oth< rtlays. It w;is
iheii that iiiiiieis washed, baki'(|, and niendetl; on Sun-
day those wiio (lug at distant eam[is came to town for
their Week's sup[)ly. Their di'udgery done, all hand:-
turnt!d their atlention to <

levilt

ly; some e\' n neg-

lected di, Wasteful duties thnt they might the ni<»r(
wliolly consecrate the day to Satan, it seemed almost
a matter of ewnscienc" with some to drink tiiemselves
insanii before nightfall, and sup|)lement thr day by an
e\ening of tran(|uil inebriety.

IV'tei" Nicliolas, an Austrian workin<>- at t 'olumbia
in IS'),'!, was usua!l> ready for his rounds before noon,
so that by three or I'oui' o'ehtek he was (piite hilarious.
Such was hi., condition wlien, in the afternoon ol'
Noveinbei' lllth, with two companions he i'uteied
th^' store of ( '. 11. AUerihng, at the corner «jf Main
^(•n streets, and opened hanter with one

an<l

Jack

.lohn Parote, a minei- from IMne i.iog, who was tlu-re
traihnjr.

"I say, nuster, what's your name;"' began Pete.
Parote deigiu'd no re])ly.

"Well, then, wlure <lo you live!'" Still no reply.

;

i I n

r.3i;

INFELICITIES AXD ALLEVIATIONS.

"Do you know where you came from? What
country do you belong to?" continued Pete.

" I belong to all countries," replied Parote; "I am
a Californian."

"That won't do," persisted Pete; "I want to know
Avliat countryman you are?"

"All right — I'm an Irishman," said Parote; "does
that suit y<ni!'"

"No, it don't!" exclaimed Pete, seizing tlie other
bv the collar.

"Let me go!" demanded Parote, endeavoring to
release himself.

"No, I won't!" cried Pete.

Thereupon Parote struck liis tormentor in the face,
struck him twice, and struggling to i-elcaso liimself,
fell backv. ard over a bag of sugar, dragging liis assail-
ant after liini.

"Hold liiiii!" ciicd one of the drunken man's com-
jnuiions, springing forward. " Pete has a knife!"

The W('a{)on was secured, but not until tlio Austrian
had made three passes at Parf>te, wh(^ at the last
thrnst I'liod. "I am struck!"' and fell back prostrate.

The Austrian was arrested, taken h-rf-re Justice
Cardey i<>' cxaniinjition, and committed for trial.
Columbia having then no jail, the prisoner's leg was
jiadlocked to a staple in the floor of a room adjoining
the justice's otlicc, and a guard set over him.

Meanwhile inl'ormation of the aifair spread, and
soon miners wore seen coming in from every direction
to detorniinc what should be di'iu . Particularly weri'
those from Pine Log interested, for there the wounded
man had many friends in no wise disposed to n'gard
lightly the stab!)ing of a comrade at Columbia. An
day change I into night so darkened their mood; nd
by ncx! iMoniing the niattei; was arranged. Auer
breakiitst, quieUy and openly a eor>pany of miners,
the majority of whom were Pine Logites, proceeded
to the justice's other, pried with a crow-bar the staple
from the floor, and despite the expostulations of the

SOLOMON THE SHERIFF.

537

ofuard took Nicholas to the gulch south-west of the
Inroad way Hotel and there made ready to hang him
to a tree. The ropo was round his neck and over the
limb, but before the word was given, the constable
and an assistant were np the tree trying to eiit the
rope, when the limb breaking, down came all together.
It was an unlucky tree, and unfit for hanging purposes,
now that the only good limb on it was broken ; so they
cursed it, cursed the constable, and then went over- to
the Gold Hill slope and chose a better tree.

By this time James W. Coffroth, a budding law-
tender, was on the ground: Coffroth the cunning.
He too wanted the man hanged, he said ; it was the
duty of all good men to hang bad men. But for
the everlasting lionor of our j^j-lorious repulilic. let all
tiling's be done decently and ii order. Paroto was
now dead. As a matter of course Nicholas would Ix;
hanged; there was not a shadow of possibility of his
escape. But for the credit of Columbia give the man
, trial; force not Pine Log to hide her head among
the nations for having hanged an Austrian upon
whose cause no miner sat in judgment.

Talking thus against time, as was his purpose, Cof-
tVoth won. Presently the sheriff appeared. Solomon
was his name, and a very good name, and a good
slKniff. Judging from outward expression and car-
riaiiv, he too would deliijht in seeinu' the Austrian
hanued. Solomon's vocation was lian'jjiuL;'; for such
he had been created. But a close observer might
havr detected about Solomon's mouth that whioli \)v-
lii'd liis careless demeanor; a listener to tlie low word
spoken here and there in the ears of the more intelli-
L^t.'ut and stalwart of the crowd woultl surely liave
il'tected it. Further, he would have seen the iiieii
>■' spoken to one by one slowly (xlging their way
toward the prisoner, and so far as possible unnoticed
I'Tui a firm belt of determination round hiii. Then
opened Solomon his mouth; wide he opene i it, for it
\\as large, and by no means handsome.

II '

m INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

" Gontlcmon," lie said, without ofFcriiig to lay hand
upon tlir prisonc'i", "you will ('X<'usc mc, but thiw man
is goin<.( to the Sonora jail, there to await liis trial by
law. I anj .i^oing to take him there. You are all
good men, acting from good motives; but believe me,
my I'riends, it is best as I have said." Solomon's
friends did not agree with him, ]iow(;v< r, and making
a rush upon the [)risoner, they sought to reseue him
from the law. Hut tiie belt f)f brawny nun they
found impassable. Tliey saw tiiemselve.s outwitted;
such was Solomon; and availing themselves of the
privilege of the beaten to swear, they swore, and
Nic-'holas slept that niglit in jaik Bui tor Colfroth
and Solomon, liadi-s would suivly have' been his
resting-[)laee.

The trial came <m in due form tlie 'JJtli of tlie fo!-
lowiiiLi- February, and the intclliu'ent jurv for.ii.l Peter
Niehola.s guilty of murder and recommended him to the
mer<'y of the court. They did nt»t thin): Ik^ should be
hanged, yet he nnu'dered; they could not deny he nun
de)'ed; br.t it was in drunken fun, and they thought
imprisonment f;!;- !i)e enough. Not knov, iug that v.ith
the jndge, whii has no di.seretion, nnu'dei' means hang-
ing, the}" make iliis mess of it. Justice .uknowledgvd
li( r <»b!ig;itie.n and the j'-U'v was discharged; but as is
often the casi', ju.-tiee coidd have weighed out this
man's duv i'nv moi'e e(juitai>ly without tlie assistance
of twelve ignorant anci stupid men. "^riii" Tth of April
18.')4 was li.xed for the execution of Peter \ichola'-.

At thi.> rime the great (|Uestioji in jiolitieal circle-
was the location of tlu' state capital. San Jose.
VuIK'jo. Monterey, an<l Sacramento t.-ach beggi-tl
tile honor and proiitof it, and to the kgislaturt whicii
conveiK'd at lienicia the first Monday in Januai \
1854 nunierons loiig petitions accom[)anied tedions
coninumications .-netting i'orth the relativt adxantages
of the several ])Iaces, and what their citi/A-ns vdiild
give and do to sotthi tlu' law -makers among tliciu.
The windy debates, \nn[ indeed everything conn(j ted

I*.

THE PINE LOG TETITION.

^.39

Avitli tlio subject hocanie at Ituigtli so tiresouu! tlia,t
the miners, with their usual keen appreciation of
the hidicrous, turned it into hurles(pie hy drawing
up a petition making Pine Log tlie state capital.
Entering into tlie spirit of tlie tiling, everyhody signed
it, particularly the Pino Logites, though it never was
forwarded to the legislature.

We liavo seen that John Pigler often forixave the
freest where the sm was greatest; indeed liis reputa-
tion for ])ardoning was now notorious. Tl(t was
specially forgiving of the sins of his i'olloweis, Xow
Peter Nicholas, the Austrian, when he killed John
l*;ii'ote, did not know tlier*' wa> siiclx a l)ei:ig in exist-
ence as John Bigler, nor did he care. IL; liad that
which was more poweitnl than goveniors, gold, the
master of John Pigh'i', the governor, now tlie faithfid
servant of ]\'ter Nicholas, tlie murderer. It was not
iiiueh; Pete had saved a little mon<!y at work, hut all
that a man hath Viill he gi\e for his lite. I'et(.'s
money htnight him a good lawyer, an exceedingly
;;ood lawyer, an ahle man of easy conscience, iiol,
overscrupulous as to the tricks of the trade, and veiv
ixpei't in [)ointing tin \\ea[)ons oj;' tav*' against its
hwu hreast. In all -^eiiousness, however, he it said to
Ins jtraise that he proved a stanch ndhertMit to his
cause, lie <,'ould not clear I'ete hy law; even the
tlolts u))on the jury bench must say guilty when
they meant innocent; so he would tiy stratagem.

temptingly U[)on a merchant's eouute;- one; day this
lawyer saw the list of signatures to the ]*ine Log
• ajiita^. petition. All ho[)e to save his client's life by
eiiier than desperate means had long sin<'i' abandone<l
liim, Sli[)ping the ))etition into his l)reast-pocket, he
It tired to his r(K»m, tore from (he signatures, covering
several pages of legal ])aj)er, the heading, wr(.t(; a
player to the ex(^cutive begging conmuitation of the
<ii a(h setitence of Peter Nicholas, joined caitil'ully to
ii the list of signatures, many of which wer(> written
li\ the same liands that hi'l[)ed adjust the ropearouml

ill

940

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

the Austrian's neck, o id ronvarded it to John Bisflcr,
governor. It was enough. Ten years of pcnitcntiar}'^
discipline was made the substitute of hempen lialter.
And til is, by one of those stampedes of state prisoners
frequent in early San Quentin life, was reduced to four
years, and Peter Nicholas, the Austrian, was again a
free man.

fif. ft

On the 17th of February 1854 some members of a
band of Mexican and Chilean robbers entered a cnbiii
in Mariposa ( 'ounty, whore they mur«lered and robbed
an old man named Nathan Pratt, of ^[ain(j. One of
the band was immediately captured and hurried to a
tree in front of Pratt's (;abin, where he was hanged.
Another was .soon arrested, but was protected Ijy his
countrymen, who collected from all parts of the coun-
try and demanded that he should ha\e a legal trial.
Upon this rt'sistance the Americans handed in large
force, seized the prisonei-, and hanged him beside his
comrade.

During the latter part of March a horse-thief, a
Swiss named Schwai-tz, was captured and hanged by
a mob at Jackson. The tree uj)on which lie was exe-
cuted had l)een used seven times for a like ])m'|i()se.
After till- execution of Schwartz it was suu'ijfested
that, an image of .lutlge Lynch shouM be carved from
the free. A Mexican was han<>ed in July lor horse-
atealing. .Vnoth'i' ^Mexican who had stabbeil lii>
brot!ier-in-hiw was hanged by tlie ])eo])le, his re-cjuesL
tliat. lie might be shot, although Ijackeil l)y the en-
treaties of his many iVicMids, having bi;en refused.
Another and another punishnniit of similar naUnv
occurred at about the same tim(> and piac«3.

Sweet Sononia, whose vaiUy is too lovely to be so
disfigured, saw the horse-thiei' liichie lianging fmiu
the tree where l)ef()re ti'ial tin: niol) had elevated
him the 30th of May. Richie had been arrested in
Shasta City lor stealinijf mules, and was sent to Sonom i
City for tiiil undei- charge of a dejnity sheritl" and ii-^

CATALO(JUE OF 1854.

two aids. The party stopped at the liouse of the
ofHcer over night; in the morning they were aroused
])\ an imperative demand for Richie. Some fifteen or
twenty men stood outside the liouse, and the command
was perforce complied with. Taking tlie piisoner,
they orthired the guard to remain where they were
until afternoon. Proceeding to an old adobe liousc
on Santa llosa Creek, tliey held a long conference as
to tlieir disposition of Richie; hanging at once or trial
hy law were in turn considered. Acting U|)on tlu^r
iiaal decision, they hronglit the j)risoner hack un-
liarmed to the guai'd, and told tlieni to ])roc('cd witli
liim to Sonoma for trial. The prisoner urged a delay
until night hefore taking the journey, so that it was
ten o'clock hei'ore they started. Their appreliensioiis
oftiduMe seemed groundless, f »rtliey were now within
four miles of the town without (.;ncounterini; any op-
l)o>ition, when suddenly there ap])eare(l before them
like an apparition, veiled in the thick fog', about I'orty
incn, who seized Richie and ordered the guard (o
let ire. Possibly lliey wcr(? Richie's friends come to
release him iiMm the approaching ti'ial; in the mist
that obscured everything it was inipossiltle to tell. At
daybreak the next morning tlie guard continued their
way to Sonoma; l)Ut they had not pro(?eeded far when
tiiey saw the body of Jlicliie hanging from the limb
of a white-oak. Although considerable exciti'Uient
]ii'e\ailed foi- a while, it subsided in the belief that a
jii>1 punishment had bel'alleii a hoi'se-thi(!f.

A paitv of men frnm ( ontra (.'e.sta, with Cicorgc
Carpenter as their- leader, seai'ching foi- stolen cattle,
found some of them on the night of August 2'Jd at a
slaughter coi'ral owned by Anic'dee Canu, a I'^reni'li-
nian, and Pierre Archandjault, a ]3elgian. lf.i<les
l)caiing the owner's brand were also found concealed
.'iliout the ))lace. The two men were arrested and
taken to San Antonio; the vote ol' the asseml)k;d
crowd was asked as to what disposition should be
made of them. It was determined that they should be

INFELICITIES ANT) ALLEVIATIONS.

n K

:■<■ =

given up to tlio autliorities, which was done. During
the night the ranchmen tor miles around gathered
at San Antonio and in the early niorning forced the
juison, and seizing the men, hanged them from trees
in tlie roar of the Mansion House.

At Iowa Hill William Johnson, a noted desperado,
on the 24th (tf December stahhed one Montgomery
under circumstances peculiarly aggravating. No hoj »es
were entertained of lecovery. The assassin was seized
hy the sheriff, l)ut was taken from his hands l)v tlio
pcopli', tiled hy a jiiiy of twelve, and the next day
was hanged, two tliousarifl jjcrsoiis attending. After-
Mard Montgomery recovered I. On the 5th of .ranuary
five of the |)artir'ipants in tlie ntfair were arrested hy
the shei"iH*. who came down iijion thcni with a posse
of one hundred and iifty men, wliorenpon the hells
were rung, and tlie people rallied, swearing that the
accused sljould not he taken to trial. Thinking l)etter
of it, and haviii<^, as thev thousfht, nothing to fear,
sevtMi others of the citizens who had assisted at the
trial and (execution came forward and voluntarily gave
themselves up in order that they iniglit share the
])enalty, it' any, with their IVicmds. They were held
to hail in the sum (»f live thousand dollars each, but
were subsequently diseharged.

About the s:ime tinu; nt Volcano, in Amadoi- County,
one Macy stabbed an old man. In less than half an
hour alter the eonuuission of the crime he was executed
by the mob.

Heslep, acting treasurer of Tuolumne Cyounty, was
murdei'ed on the IHtli of January IBaf). A man
strongly su.s])ectcd of having connnittcd the deed was
pursued ami executed by the people within twenty
four lumrs. About the same time an old man ol"
family at .lacksoii was killcMl bv a vounu" man, and in
less than half an houi- after tlu^ nuudep'!- was swiii'^
ing from a tree without the aid of judge or jury. On
the 2Gth two Chileans and a Mexican were han^eil

CATALOGUE OF 1855.

.-•4.1

by the people in Contra Costa County for cattle-steal-
ing. It was the nationality of these thieves that cost
thoni their lives. The slaver of a man in a fijjht on
the Klamath was found gnilty of manslaughter by a
coui't of law. This not .satisfying the people they
.seized and hanged the prisoner.

Three banditti were arrested on the San Joacpiin in
January 1855, one of whom, Salvador Valdcs, con-
I'l'sscd their connection with a band of cattle-thieves,
and said that fifteen were then on their way IVom
southern California. He oftered to deliver them all
to the people if they would take him to the place
iiK'ntioned ; but as Valdes Jiad previously beun arrested
and had made his escape, his captors would not risk
the consequences of such an experiment. He boasted
of having taken the lives of .seven men, and gave
vivid descriptions of jiis successful depredations on
many ranches. "A regularly organized band of liorse-
tliieves," says the Sonora Ilcralil, "exi.sts in Tuol-
uume County, wlio carry on their depreciations with
an astonishing degree of boldness." After a trial
by tlu> ])eoj)le these (les]>oradoes were convicted and
hanged at Smith and .loiinson's rancho on the San
Jou(iuin lliver.

A travelling Frenchman relates that on reaching
Hawkins Bar he saw a Mexican tied to the trunk ol' a
tree and surrounded by a crowd. The culprit was
stii])ped to the waist, and a dozen men armed with
luidles and stirrup-straps were whipping him by tui-ns.
His offence, they said, was the murder of a lu'dl'eUow.
Though his back was covered with blood and his tace
wa- deadly pale, witli cliai-acteristic stoicism the
M(^xican uttered no complaint, but lit^ld between his
( linclied teeth the end of a cigar, as if in deliance
ot" fate. Two hours later, on entering a tavern, the
l''rcnchman was su'^nrised to sv.c the same man at a
table with his (>xecutioners, drinking gin and whiskey.
He supposed the affair ended; but the same evening
ho found the M(;xican han!»:in2: frcmi the branch of an

344

INFELICITIES AND .VLLKVIATIOXS.

E'7 »

oak. It appears that from conipas.sloii lii.s judges had
.sought by tho above moans to deaden suffering and
ease the exit.

On the 1st of February a crowd entered the jail at
Oakland between three and four o'clock in the morn-
ing, and taking out two prisoners, named Sheldon and
Parker, brou<j:ht them t(» a tree near the bridge on
the road leading to Clinton. There they executed
Sheldon, but released Parker on account of informa-
tion he gave incul[)ating others of the horse and cattle-
stealing fraternity. Parker, however, was obliged to
witness the execution of his companion.

Upon the adidavit of one William Paine four no-
torious horse-thieves were arrested at Turner Pass
in ^lay. Tiiey were named William Watson, William
Hand, Adolplius I'l Moore, and ]?ole Wilkerson, the
two former designated respectively as Big Pill and
Littk; Bill. Paine testilietl tliat these men called at
liis liouse and made incpiiries as to the stock and
money l)el()U''ini»; to diil'erent iiersons in that vicinity.
He iiad been ac(|uainted with them lor some time,
'i'hey told him tiiey had an easy way <»f making a
living, I'reely exposing their method, and asked l*aine
to become one of them; telling him at the same time
that when they had opened a secret so far to a man
thoy would kill him it" he did not join them. Upon
the ari'est of the men, they were taken before a
l)eoi)le's court and the execution of two of them de-
termined upon. They were conducted in front of the
residence of the Ilev. J. G. Johnson and })laced on a
cart under a tree, when the lickle crowd changed its
n)ind and let the constable have them. After lurther
meditation upon the matter, late Sunday night a small
delegation took the men from jail. Watson was
liangetl and then shot; Hand was placed on a barrel
for the purpose of hanging him, when he broke away
and escaped to the authorities. The fourth prisoner,
Wilkerson, eflected his escape in the darkness. While
in prison and under conviction of death they all made

.VLICE STiaiUNG OF 1IA\ILAII.

04".

impoitant confosHionss as to the organization with
which they had boon connected. Watson, of Hii;
Bill, stated that the ^'ani^ consisted of three hunched
men, and was completely orjjfanizod under a constitu-
tion and by-laws, and that it extende«l iVoni the ('t»lo-
rado to Marysville. Drown was captain of the hand.
Ilenewod eftbrt was now made for the ariest of others
imj^licated by these confessions. IJrown was at lasl
overtaken stealing cattle from the Tejon, was jmrsued
and captured, with two of his men, and all three were
hammed.

Ilavilah when newly settled had in it a l.iiije (juar
nlsome element; so that street lii^hts and saloon
biawls were of daily occui-retice, and many a life w;is
there ruthlessly destroyed without a thought of retri-
Itution. One evening <luriiiij;' this yeai', at the Casino
^iiloon, a despera(k> named J Jill llan)nioiid was gam-
lilinjj^ with one l''red Stewart, when a dispute arost'
which led to Jlannnond's shoot iiij^ Stewart dead. The
assassin left the room, and the fiicndsof the murdercil
man attended to the remains. The thou:^lit <»f j)ursuintj;
I lannnond was not entertained until .lohn, the bi-other
• if b'red Stewart, returned from Whiskey b'lat, wiitTe
lie was at the time (tf the ail'ray. lie started at once
witii six others to overtake the murderer. In the
meantime Fred Stewart's funeral took place. Amouij;'
t he mourners the mo.st sincere seemed a 3'oung woman,
Alice Sterlinjj^, who was a miners tlaun'hter and the
jliiiicce of Stewart. J^ong afterward daily she would
carry flowers to his grave. Suddenly she was missing,
and after unsuccessful search the conclusion was that
she had died by her own hand. In Jolm Stewart's
])ursuit of Hammond the desperate character of the
outlaw was fully evinced. His hiding-place was «lis-
covered in the (jrreenhorn Mountains. The pursuing
party divided and ascended the mountain on either
side. As Stewart with one companion, Gore, ap-
l)r()ached Hammond's retreat, a shot fi-om behind a,
tree, followcfl (piickly by another, laid both men dead.

Poi>. TlilD., Vol. I. Jo

t'-1

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-S)

1.0 ^^ m

I.I

2.2

^^' IIIIIM __
" IM ^

;i iM 1 2.0
lllll 1.8

1-25 1.4 1.6

►

Photographic

Sdences

Corporation

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

.^^' m

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■V '^° y^

r4(J

IXFELICITIES AXD ALLEVIATIONS.

!!''

Wlicu the otliers came up and saw what had been done
they abandoned pursuit. It was but a few days after
tliis that Alice Sterhng had disappeared. Three years
later, Hammond was in a saloon in Pioche at a card-
table, when a woman entered and unperceived by him
stepped behind his chair, drew a revolver, and shot
him dead. Then pointing the pistol to lier own head,
she fired and soon after died. The woman was Alice
Sterling, and the foul murder of her lover, which with
the killing of two others of their number the pusil-
lanimous townsmen of Havilah had permitted to pass,
was thus avenged.

Extra judicial associations did not always confine
themselves to the punishment of crime ; instances arc
on record where misfortune unattended by blame ob-
tained recognition. On the 4th of March at Sonora,
California, the banking office of Adams and Company,
M'hose doors were closed in San Francisco nine days
previous, was entered by a mob, the sheriff then in
jiossession was driven out, the vault containing the
treasure was broken open, and paying tellers appointed
who paid it out as fast as checks were presented.
After thus sun?Tnai"ily liquidating the liabilities of
this branch office, the remainder was handed back to
the sheriff and the mob retired. Like attempts were
made in other localities, most of which failed tlirougli
the firmness of the officers of the law and the <jradu-
allv increasinu: love of order and good behavior arisiuLi
in the community.

In August six Americans were found nuirdertd
near Jackson. The Mexicans were accused; thirty-
six were arrested, and some advocated the execution
of all of them. Several were tried, and three hanged
on one tree.

At Snelling in September some Mexicans were
caught with stolen mules. One was hanged and

• • • 1

another shot, the sheriff being blindfolded and man
acled at the time that he miijht not interfere. Wliilc
the coroner's jury, summoned by the deputy sherilV.

MARTHA OF COLUMBIA.

one

fter

jars

[ird-

him

shot

icad,

Vlicc

witli

:)usil-

pass,

online
OS are
lie ob-
onora,
npany,
e (lay-
lien ill
ng tbe
pointed

sented.

ties oi"
ack to

trt wert'

hrougli
crradu-

arisiii;4

lurdeved
thirty-
Lccuti(»u
hanged

IS were
red and
Fid nian-

sherilV,

were lioldingan inquest, shots were fired into the room
by Mexicans, and several wounded, one fatally. The
otficer was taken prisoner but afterward released.

In all the southern mines there was no lovelier town
than Columbia; but durinac the reitjn of bowie-knife
and pistol it was the scene of many an unlovely per-
formance. Bright the sun and beautiful the hills;
sweetly sang the waters, and sweeter still the birds;
fresh the air, which every morninsf Ireshened the
delver's ardent lonyinijcs often faint with waitini;.
Ah, what a fair world this might be but for the un-
restful heart of man! Give me for companions rocks,
trees, and llowers; or if of blood and sinew, then
l)easts, and birds, and fishes; or if of species kindred
to my own, then savages, sylvan men and women for
whom centuries of cultivation have not provided mul-
titudinous arts as ministers to their passions; for my
soul's light give me the sun, and whatsoever more it
shall please my maker to let me know, but deliver me
from the coarse brutalities of civilized men.

Columbia was fair I say; not so was Martha.
Nature in her happiest mood had fashioned the hills,
and overspread them with loveliness; had filled the
echoing canons with sweetest melody and laid on all a
heaven of palpitating light; Martha's heart was acrid,
and her blood like the clear babbling stream muddied
by the miners, was turbid with the flow of the soul's
impurities.

Therefore Martha was no saint; neither would she
have been welcomed into the sisterhood of those im-
maculate dames whose virtue shines briijfhtly only
when placed l)eside black vice. Martha kept a saloo)i :
what that meant in a mining town in early days the
reader well knows. Some call them dens, but I do
not; everybody went there, and she was as respectable
as the men who were glad to sit on her sofa and talk
to her because she was a woman; furtiiermore, Martha
was married: nuirried to a man.

.1' U- ,

Jir

if II

648

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

1'--

John Barclay was liis name; and he was not a bad
man, thougli a gambler, married to a prostitute, and
finally hanged. He was not a bad man, though the
woman he married brought him for a dowry what
Helen brought to Troy — desolation. He was not a
^)ad man, morally measured, as men go; I would rather
have such a one my friend than many who make
broad their phylacteries and sit in church pews, than
many who count their worse than gambling gains
by millions. Hu was honest and open-hearted, not
mean; he gambled, and so did those for whom he
dealt, the class that pretend to abhor gamblers, those
who sit on one side of the table, condemning the no
more guilty who occupy the opposite seats. True,
the woman h(3 married was one at whom those who
had made her what she was threw stones ; and he her
husband was hanged, but it was for that which any
manly man would have done under the circumstances,
namely, for shooting one who was striking his wife.
Let those whose morals cover no impurities, whose
I'cligion hides no hypocrisy, denounce the openly bat!
as in every particular worse than themselves; for my-
self I see much to excuse in the professionally wicked
that I cannot pass by in the more refined rascalities
of the prudish and the puritanical.

But in the tongue of current morals Martha was
bad; and so was Barclay. The 10th of October 1855
they had been married less than two months. The
event was celebrated while Martha was absent at an
agency of hers at Chinese Camp. It was there that
Barclay first met her, and their short acquaintance
ripened into a sort of worm-eaten affection.

John H. Smith was a minor, not necessarily better
or woise than Barclay; but the world in its moral
technicality agreed, by reason of his occupation, in
calling him better; though so far as the record goes,
the only difference between them lay in the fact that
Smith drank to drunkenness at the counter from
behind which Martha served the poison, and gambletl

MARTHA'S HUSBAND.

640

bad
and

the
vliat
lot a
Lther
nake
than
Lj-ahis
, not
11 he
those
he no
True,
3 who
le her
h any
.anccs,
s wife,
whose
ly bad

r niy-
.vicked
^ahties

better

nioi

sitting at one side of the table while Barclay sat at
the other side.

On the date before mentioned Smith dropped his
pick and entered Columbia on a rousing spree. While
in Martha's saloon he accidentally broke a pitcher
which was standing on the counter. A fistic skirmish
followed the high words arising from the accident;
but the male being the superior brute, Martlia was
getting the worst of it, when Barclay entered, drew a
pistol, and shot Smith dead.

The miners were furious, as they had reason to be.
Barclay had no light to kill Smith; he should be
hanged for it, and the miners would do it if the law
would not. Coffroth was there, and stirred their
passions in a moderate speech, partly to see them
siumier and partly to sugar-coat his own popularity.
Coffroth was Ijecoming very wise. Two years back
he was ready to fight for the law. And he still thought
the law a good thing ordinarily, but in this instance —
the murdered man had been a friend of his.

Jack Ilcckendorn, editor of the Columbia Clipper,
was nominated judge, and a juiy of twelve appointed.
The sheriff and his subordinates were easily over-
powered, the jail doors were beaten in with axes and
crow-bars, and the prisoner was brought forth. Bai--
elay well knew the meaning of it all, and on reaching
the jail door made a desperate effort to escape. ]3ut
on him, all at once, fell fifty men amidst horrible im-
precations and cries of •' Hang him !" "Up with him !"
"Put him through!" "Swing him up!"

Beneath the ominous beams of the Tuolumne Water
Company's flume where it crosses the Gold Springs
road the turbulent tribunal asseml)led and sat. Here
a ring was formed, and the prisoner with John Oxley,
who had been appointed his counsel, placed within it.
Tliere were also the judge and jury, with Coffroth as
prosecuting attorney, though he would gladly liavo
seen Barclay free. Little prosecuting the poor- pris-
oner required, surrounded as he was by the thousand

550

INFELICITIES AXD ALLEVIATIONS.

; 1

Iv- '

flames of consuming vengeance l>lazing in the breasts
of those ravenous for liis blood. As well might Oxley
stand beneath the high Yosemite and argue to the
waters the folly of their falling.

And to Barclay, how sudden and how strange ! It
was like the delirium of a drunken dream. But an
hour or two ago he was free and happy. The sun
then shone for him; the glorious panorama spreading
I'rom where he sat, and soon to be rolled from his i-e-
ceding gaze, was then brcath-inspirod foi- him, attuned
to the melody of his life. He had harbored nt) ill to
the man he had killed, never before had seen him, did
not even know his name. Instinctivelv he had raised
his hand against him who had raised his hand against
his wife. What demoniacal howler of them all would
not have done the same? And all for a broken
pitcher. Oh, most danmable !

John Ward moved that the jury be sworn, when
the crowd shouted, *' No humbug!" "Go ahead!" In
this instance the crt)wd were right; wJiat had swear-
ing to do with it? There was not a jmyman there
but knew his verdict would bo that oj" guilty; he dare
not give another. Nevertheless the jury were sworn;
and probably the consciences of some were eased
thereby. It was the irony of the jury system and
of judicial procedure, these mob tribunals, with their
judge, counsel, and jury, and the verdict already before
the trial. Swear in (j}od'« name, if there is any relief
in it; but no wonder the crowd cr}' "No humbug!"

The witnesses were then called, but we will not
follow them. The evidence is all before me, and is as
I have stated. It was a very simple case: Smith was
drunk, and Martha, angry that he should break her
pitcher, applied abusive epithets, whereupon Smith
seized and handled her loughly, and Barclay entei'ing
at that moment shot him. The whole aft'air, so says
the testimony, did not occupy five minutes. Coffroth,
the prosecutor, testified to the respectability of the
prisoner prior to his marriage.

WOLVES IN MEN'S CLOTHING.

651

sasts

xloy

the

\ It

it an
) sun
vding
is re-
buncd
ill to
m, did
raised
i^ainst
would
)roken

, when
1!" In
[ swear-
there
dare
sworn ;
eased

iUl

and

their

before

relief

|)Ug:

ill not
nd is as
ith was
ak her

Smith
ntering
so says
offroth,

of the

Give him to us I" '' I p

Meanwhile tlie crowd wore noisy and impatient.
Martha Barclay was called by the defence to testify.
Then the mob began afresh, "No, no I" "Away with
herl" "Off I off!" " Put her away I" "Bring a'lnena
to testify!" And these great American justicc-loxers
wttuld not let the hated object come near tlie ring.
When the husband shot the man that assaulted the
woman, then she was not his wife, and hence anath-
ema. When the woman wished to testify, tlien she
was his wife, and hence anathema.

Hcckendorn, the judge, then asked if there were
any witnesses from Chinese Camp, Barclay's former
])lace of residence, w'hen the crowd yelled, "What in
liell do we want with Cliinesel" " Send liim to liell
Jbr witnesses!" "Make a prayer and let's have liim!"
"Don't wait! the sheriff will be here directly!" To
which last remark the judge replied with gravity,
"There is no danjj^er the sheriff will get throu<>'h this
crowd." The answer was, "'
with himl"

Heckeiidorn, fearing the crowd would become
frantic, then announced that the counsel on either
side would address the jury. "Cut it shoit!" came
from the rabble. "One minute apif.'ce!" "Quick!"
"Short!"

Coffroth, for the prosecution, opened and was lis-
tened to with attention and applause, for though the
prisoner was his friend the eyes of the world wei'o
u[)ou him. Oxlcy, for the defence, could scarcely be
beard at all. He begged them to consider what they
wei'e about to do. "Enough!" "F^nougli!" was the
reply. He spoko <.)i' the laws, when he was interru])ted
with "Damn the laws!" "No, no! up with him!"
"Give him to us!" This last was the most horrible
cry the prisoner had ever heard. There was more of
the hungry wolfishness in it, more of that insatial)le
thirst for human blood, than could be found in oceans
of current blasphemy. The judge asked that the
counsel for the defence might be heard, but in vain.

I't" II

INFELICITIES AXI> ALLEVIATIONS.

It was now dark. A large fire whicli had been
kindled blazed near by, casting its crimson glare upon
that terrible tribunal which struggled so hard to give
the color of justice to their wildly insensate proceed-
ings. It was a weird and woful spectacle.

While Coffroth was writing a letter home for
Barclay, and just as the jury were about to retire,
James M. Stewart, the county sheriff, rode u]> and in
the name of the law demanded the person of John S.
Barclay. He then attempted to seize him, but the
mob in its fury easily caught uj) both Barclay and the
sheriff, and carried them separate ways. In an instant
Barclay was beneath the flume with the inexorable
hemp about his neck. Stewart made a desperate
effort to save him. Breakincr from those who held
him, he called upon the people to assist him in the
discharge of his duty. With almost superhuman
strokes he beat down the rabble between himself and
Barclay, and with a knife attempted to cut the I'ope
which held him, when he received a severe blow from
a pistol upon his liead, and was caught and dragged
back into the crowd.

The remainder of this disgraceful tragcdj' I will not
write, but will give it in the words of an eye-witness :
"The hancjinsf scene was one of the most terrible and
brutal ever witnessed by man. The rope had been
lowered from the flume above and haltered around
Barclay's neck without the humane precaution of
pinioning the wretch's hands and arms. A dozen
men hauled away on the rope, and as the writhing
body went up, a yell broke forth from the mass of
men below. The imprecations were horrible, and the
gesticulation brutally expressive. The mob was now
frantic, murderous, mad. As the howling demons
above luiulod on the rope, Barclay in the intensity of
his despair grasped the cord over his head with both
hands and clung to it for a few moments with the
tenacity of desperation. Those who were hauling at-
tempted to shake Barclay's grip by raising the rope

THE YEAR 1856.

86S

ill not
tness :
le and

been
Tound
on of
dozen
itliing
ass of

id the
Is now
lemons
sity of
ill both
bh the
mg at-
|e rope

and letting it fall suddenly, and one of his execu-
tioners, a man named Terry, leaned over the edge of
tlie flume and shouted, 'Let go, you damned fool!
let go!' Finally one hand weakened and fell to his
side; then the other gave way, and a few convul-
sive quivers ran through his frame as his breath was
strangled by the tightening cord. Tlien all was still,
the body hanging motionless forty feet above the
surging mass of men beneath. For an instant an
awful calm fell upon the mob; they seemed to realize
the full extent of their horrible work, and men spoke
in whispers as they gazed upward at the shape
<langling between heaven and earth. Then the reac-
tion came; the swinging body lost its interest, and the
hoarse yells broke forth once more. *To INIartha'sl'
'To Martha's!' they yelled. 'Let's rip the liouso
down!' 'Down with it!' 'Hurrah, boys!' and away
went a large number of the more blood-thirsty mem-
bers of the mob. Arriving at Martha's, they broke
the windows only. They then proceeded to a place
called Pike's, and after behaving like a pack of mad
fools, shouting and dancing, performed in the same
insane manner in front of what was known as the
'China Houses,' one by one the surfeited mob dis-
a[)peared, and shortly after midnight all was quiet in
Columbia."

The ye.ir of the Grand Tribunal opens with the
apprehension of two Chileans near Coulterville in
^larch^ charged with robbing Chinamen. Tried before
a magistrate, they were acquitted. The people, how-
ever, were not satisfied. Robbing Chinamen was a
common thing — no very great offence as wickedness
wont — and if the culprits had been Americans it is
probable no further notice would have been taken of
tlie affair. But the miners never missed a chance
of hanging a ' greaser.' So these two Chileans were
seized again, tried by the people, and one of them
nanged.

554

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

i,.

Four i)orsons, tliioe JNIuxicaiis and one Indian, who
had been incarcerated on rather shght proof at Mon-
terey to await their trial I'or murder, on the l7th of
May 185C> were taken from the jail by the mob and
lianixed.

At Deep Creek on the night of the 23d of June
Solomon Brundridge of Surprise Valley was killed
by one A. J. Goff', who claimed to iuive connnitted
the deed in self-defence. The wife of the murdered
man was the cause of the difficulty. Gotf boarded
at Brundridge's, and the husband was jealous. Mrs
Brundridge was a sinuer. Goff told what he had
done; but not finding that expression of sympathy in
the eyes of his listeners which he deemed essential to
his safety, he attempted to escape, whereupon he was
arrested. The inquest over, the people concluded to
hang Goff. Prisons were insecure, and trials expensive
and uncertain. Whatever conclusion the law might
arrive at, Goff was none to good to hang. So on the
night of the 27th, lifty men of Suri)rise Valley, armeil
with guns, presented themselves before the house
where Goff was coniined and demanded the murderei'.
The limbs of the law bristled with bravery. Particu-
larly Judge Bowmer felt himself called upon to lay
down his life for the constitution of his country.
Knowing that there was not the slightest danger of
their firing on him, tlu> judge placed his back against
the door, and while a dozen open-mouthed guns ic-
garded him threateningly, lie loudly declaimed that
they should make him like unto a piece of honey-
comb before he yielded to their unhallowed demands.
Shoving the good judge aside they entered, brought
out the prisoner, and conducted him to a gate witli
tall posts and a cross-beam. xV rope was thrown ovei-
the beam, one end of whicli Goff adjusted to his neck.
While these preparations were going on he took oc-
casion to remark that he was a dead-centre shot with
a revolver, that he had killed more men than one,
that he always said he should die with his boots on,

ENGLISHMAN AND SlWNIxVRD.

flW

and that if ho might kill threo inoromeii in the valley
ho could die happy. Thou chinbing tlu' ropo to the
cross-boam, ho junipod oil', launohiiig his soul luddcr-
loss into spaco. .

C. Colobrook, an English sailor living at Angol
Camp, in tho al'tornoon of Soptombor 20lh wont to
tho cabin of one Armstronir an<l plnnijod a knife into
his heart for having callotl him a hog-stoalor. Ar-
rested, Colobrook was taken before a justice of the
])oaco, and his trial began. I>ut the j)eo[)lo did not
iiincy the slow movements of legal maciiinoi'V. Tlicv
knew a better way, they said. An unhanged hrolher
of this murderer roamed at largo, who, had liis just
])unishment boon given him, might have deterred this
deed. Tho nuu'nuu-s of tho dissatisliod grow louder,
and the judge sent to San Andres for holji, tho
towns-people of Angol refusing him assistance. Night
came on, candles wore liglited, and still tho trial con-
tinued. Suddenly a man rushed into court and ex-
claimed ak)ud that tho sheriff was coming with a j^osse
of men to shield the prisoner, and that now or never
was their time. Immediately all was uproar. Tho
lights wore extinguished, judge, clerk, and constable
seized and firmly held, while the prisoner was hastened
to the nearest tree and his black soul lot fly bat-like
into the blackness of the ni^'ht.

TJie resort to the swift and summary pr-ocoss of
lynch law for righting the wrongs of a conmiunity is
always hazardous as an experiment, and frequently
results in the grossest injustice. As wo have seen, tho
(•Ijorations of the Vigilance Connnittoe of San Fran-
cisco encouraged other conununitios to throw off the
restraints of the law, and furious American mobs
were occasionally guilty of acts of violence worthy of
tlie wildest barbarians. In October of this memora-
ble year of i85G some Spaniards suspected of horso-
steahng camped on Pajaro Kivor wore attacketl by
a party of Americans, citizens of Watsonville, and the
whole party killed or captured. About six o'clock

656

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

next uiorninj^ six or Revon Spaniards came riding
through the town, and wore attacked hy the same
party of Americans. A tight ensued, in which one
Spaniard was wounded, while the others rode away.
The wounded man was brought in and tied to a flair-
staft', and a mob jury was liastily impanelled. While
this tribunal was in session a discussion arose amon^f
the citizens as to whether the man should be tried by
the irregular Jury or turned over to the authorities.
It was finally concluded to submit the matter tc- a vote,
when the sentiment appearing to be in favor of turn-
ing him over to the authorities, he was secretly let
loose. Then a hue and cry was raised, and the white
mob launched out in pursuit, firing some fifty or more
shots at the culprit before he was I'ecaptured. He
was brought in with a rope around his neck and tied
to a post like a horse. Then, having been allowed
time to smoke a cigarette, he was hanged without
further ceremony.

Precarious is the [)ath of horso-thieves. At White's
i-ancho, near Watsonville, in October labored a native
Californian sus[)octed of intimacy with a bantl of ma-
rauders infesting that vicinity. Arrested and brought
to town for trial by the people, certain of the moder-
ate sort prevailed upon the hotter-headed to deliver
the ofiender to the law. Next day, no one appearing
against him, he was discharged from nistody. When
those who had made the arrest het^rd that the law
had loosed theii' victim, they pursued and recaptured
him. While arranging for his trial the slippery fellow
broke irom them and ran. Shots were fired, which
failed to bring him down, but he was finally taken
for the third time. The work was becoming too long
and too warm; so quickly they hanged him to a tree,
thus making sure of the execution, though failing in
the trial.

The people of Happy Camp, in Del Norte County,
arrested two Chinamen suspected of the murder of
one O'Meara and of the robbing and burning of a

SELLING ONE'S HEAD.

557

junty,

Icr o\'

of a

store belonging to a man named Gazquot; the China-
men confesReil tlie crime and were lianjjfed.

An American at a certain mininii'-camp, who doubt-
less was in haste to change his place of residence,
!i])[)ro[)riated to himself a horse belonging to one of
his countrynien, and without saddle or bri<lle lode to
Calaveras, some thirty miles distant. The owner on
discovering his loss armed himself, mounted his horse,
and followed the thief The latter wirs taking his
I'epast at the Empire; lEotel in Calaveras when he
felt a han<l laid on his shoulder and heard a voice
say: "Well, my friend, did my horse suit you'i? It
was not the best in the corral, for you see I have
overtaken you." Without api)arent concern the other
answered that the horse was in the pasture, and otfei'ed
to fetch it. A ride of thirty miles had made the
owner hungrv, so he sat down and ate beside the
thief The meal iinished, the two went to the sheriu'
to have the matter settled. There had been several
tliefts in the couuiy lately, and the thieves had es-
caped; here wns an op[)()rtunity to make an cxanijile.
A jury was quickly convened, and by their venhct
tlio olfender was sentenced to be hammed. The con-
demnetl, a young man of some twent3'-live years,
tried to plead in his own behalf, but the verdict was
without appeal.

He then resigned himself to death, merely asking
that he might be shot instead of lianged, a favor
which was granted him, as good shots were plentiful
;it Calaveras.

The physician of the place, who was a soi-disant
])hrenologist, noticed some peculiar traits about the
liead of the prisoner, and ofl'ered him ten dollars for it.
I'he ofler was accepted. The condemned enclosed the
l)iece of gold in his tobacco-pouch, together with a
lock of his hair, and asked the sheriff to send it to his
mother in Missouri, at the same time begging him not
to inform her of the cause of his death. The sherift'
promised that he would simply tell her that her un-

( ^i

558

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

:ii

Ff'

fortunate son had died fr'^^m the effects of a horse-race.
Standing up before the rillemen, the fellow bared his
breast to them, asking them not to aim at his head, as
ho would not wrong anybody in his last moments, not
even the physician. The corpse was yet warm when
a dispute arose between the doctor and tlie sheriff,
because the latter insisted that if the former wanted
the head he must take the body with it. The doctor
was obliged to yield. He severed the head from the
body and carried it away in a sack, swearing that next
time he would expressly stipulate that he was to have
the head only. The body he threw into an old mining
shaft and covered it with stones.

One night in a certain mining-camp a sailor who
had deserted his ship stole two bags containing aliout
five thousand dollars' worth of gold, and seized a third
containing half dollars in silver. The jingling of the
coin awoke the owner, who gave the alarm, and the
thief was captured. A jury of twelve miners, with a
man namcid Nutman officiating as judge, tried the case.
The sailor was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.
It was finall}^ thought best, however, not to take his
life, but to give him one hundred lashes on the bare
back, cut off his cars, and shave his head, so that he
should be recognized as a felon wherever he went.
Tlie sentence was carried into effect, and the fellow
kicked out of camp. Stealing the first mule he camo
to, he rode to Calaveras Diggings, where the animal
was claimed by the owner. Again he was tried, and
sentenced to be flogged, but when laid bare his bad;
was found so cut by stripes that there was no place
left to wJiip. The miners had compassion and droMJ
liim out of the district unpunished.

In the case of an American and a Mexican, ar-
rested at Knight Ferry in September 185G for horse-
stealing, from tlie crowd assembled the prisoners wero
allowed to select twelve to act as a jury in the trial.
Before proceeding, the people decided that a majority
of the jury should be sufficient to render a verdict, and

THE YEAR 1857.

r.r)9

race.

I his
,d, as
snot
Allien
leriff,
mtod
.octor

II tlio
b next
> have
linui;-?

langf

that such verdict should be carried out, whatever it
might be. The decision of this jury, for a lynch
court, was somewhat singular. The prisoners were
found guilty and ordered to be given over to the
legally constituted authorities for trial.

The people of Mokelumne Hill thought Henry
Lorenze had taken Hopkins' money, but they could
not prove it. One Sunday evening — it was the 4th
of October 1857 — Smith invited Lorenze to drive
with him. Jogging along happily in a buggy, sud-
denly five masked men sprang from the roadside,
seized Lorenze, and carried him up to a flume, where
they nearly strangled him. Repeating tlicj process
of lifting up and letting down, with intervals of rest
for confessional purposes, for about two hours, Lorenze
was permitted to depart, nothing having been choked
out of him. It is needless to say that his friend Smith
did not wait with his vehicle for him.

One of the Wolfskills, of Solano County, in October
1857 lost a horse, which was supposed to have been
stolen. One day the animal returned of its own accord,
but with a saddle on its back. After due inquiry a
Mexican living in Vaca Valley was pronounced the
guilty person, whereupon a part}'' of the horse owner's
friends called upon the j\Icxican, who, seeing them
liandle with such grace and looseness the ominous
hemp, threw himself upon a horse and fled. The
others were instantly after him, and they finally suc-
ceeded in running him down in the vicinity of the
Potrero Hills. Then they hanged him in due form :
but before life was wholly extinct, on ascertaining
that he was not the man they had taken him for, and
no horse-thief, they lowered him gently and begged
his pardon. Connnenting on a similar incident, tlie
editor of the New York Deuiocrat, writing 'hung' for
'hanged,' 'vigilance committee' for 'mob,' and, per-
haps, 'Illinois' for 'California,' says:

"Lynch law is tolerably effective, but it has its faults. Mistakes are liablo
to occur. The other day in Illinois a vigilance committee hung a man because

;>G0

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

he looked like another man who had stolen a horse. The mistake was dis-
covered after the man's neck had heen twisted all out of shape and the
breath of life had been permanently removed from his body. Ho naturally
felt a little cool toward that committee, and no amount of apology on their
part could restore him to a proper sense. The lynch-law men should be
BUI* they are right before they go so recklessly ahead."

The Argonauts of California were not much given to
vexatious civil suits, but had their own way of filing
demurrers, enjoining trespassers, perfecting titles,
etc.; and it certainly had the advantage of economy
and despatch. In the summer of 1858 a company
of miners were working a bar-claim on the Stanislaus
Kiver, near Peoria Bar, using a wheel for raising the
water into their sluices. Two Frenchmen went to
work below thorn, with a view of fluming the river,
and were putting in a dam, which had attained such a
height as to force the water back on the wheel of the
other company, when the latter remonstrated. An
angry altercation followed, the canons for a time rever-
beratiiio' with the sonorous maledictions of Missouri
minu'lud with the trilling^ r's of France. Then the
Frenchmen, issue having been thus legally joined,
went to their cabins and came forth witli shot-guns,
and opened fire on the others, who were unarmed,
soon stretching throe of them upon the ground, one
dead and two mortally wounded. The Frenchmen,
taking their arms, left the place. Some miners,
headed by a man named Pike, followed them across
the Stanislaus River and up into the Chaparral
]\Iountains, where a fight ensued in which Pike was
slain outright and one of his followers, Charles Ken-
nedy, mortally wounded. The victorious Frenchmen
then continued their journe}^ but probably soon found
their " last camp," as all the miners of that region
were on the lookout for them.

A Mexican gambler named Pansa stabbed a Ger-
man at Sutter Creek. The miners selected a jury
and tried the Mexican; the jury found him guilty,
and the verdict was seventy-five lashes, as the Gci-

TOWN-BUILDING AND HANGING.

561

(lis-
thc
rally
their
d be

ill to

iling

itles,

loiny

pany

slaus

<y tlie

nt to

river,

iucli a

3f tlic

i. An

rever-

issouvi

u tlie

oined,

tirmed,
lul, one
ilimen,
[niners,
across
|aparral
ike was
Is Kcn-
Lchmen
[i fouml
region

a Oer-
a jury

ruiltV,

le Gev-

man was still living; but should he die, Pansa was to
be hanged. The lashes were given with a will. The
next day the German died; the Mexican was then
executed. The justice of the verdict was conceded
oven by his own countrymen. The whipping in ad-
dition to the hanging would not have been required
had the German died outright; but when the suftering
of his victim for twenty-four hours is considered, the
sentence seems to present some shades of equity finer
than those often distinguished by the law.

Nine thousand dollars were stolen from the ex-
press ofiice at Fiddletovvn on Sunday night, the 1st of
February 1857. Five men, notorious as gamblers and
thieves, were arrested and lodged in jail on suspicion.
Unable to obtain the facts in the affair, two of the
])risoners the Tuesday following were taken out and
lifted by ropes round their necks, but were lowered
before life was extinct. They would confess to nothing,
and were set at liberty. On Fiiday another, Step-
})orfield by name, having displayed much bravado
throughout the affair, was brought out, pinioned, and
hanged to a tree, but was rescued by tlie sheriff, who
removed him to Jackson jail.

The people of Bangor, Butte County, it appears did
not approve of the murder of Chinamen, even by white
people. On the 2d of April 1857 four men, who had
escaped the sheriff holding them on a charge of killing
a Chinaman, were pursued and captured by the people,
aiul three of them instantly hanged. Before the ex-
ecution the criminals confessed their guilt. They
belonged to a gang of about fifty outlaws.

Gold in tempting quantities being discovered on
Butte Creek in the early summer of the same year,
the treasure-hunters assembled to adopt measures for
laying out a town. First the spot must be christened.
' Goats ville' one suggested for a name; another 'Hu-
borsville,' another * Shaderville,' but * Diamondville'
carried by seven majority. Hangmg seemed next in
order; that is to say, let an example be made, and so

Pop. Tbib., Vol. I. 30

INFELICITIES AXD ALLEVIATIOXS.

M:'i

secure safety. The victim was a Chinaman seen rob-
bing the sluice of one Timothy O'Mera at midnight.
The heathen was detected by a watchman and shot,
once, twice; notwithstanding the leaden increase of
weight, John ran two hundred yards, when he fell and
was captured. Semi-strangulation was resorted to in
order to ascertain the whereabouts of plunder pre-
viously taken. John was firm. Off came the pride-
sustaining queue; still John spoke no words. Finally
even his Cliinese stoicism gave way, and the poor
Celestial promised if his tormentors would take liini
to the tent of a countryman he would pay two hun-
dred dollars, which was the amount said to have been
taken. Unable to walk, the miners carried him; but
arrived at his brother's, alas! he knew him not. Dis-
tress severs tlie affections even of Chinamen. Some
were now lor hanging what remained of John upon ;i
tree. But others said No; what advantage should
accrue from extinguishins: the little lifrht left in thai
vmhallowed lamp ?

Entering Aubui-u by a certain road early one morn-
ing in Februar 1858, one might have seen, perhaps
with some surprise, a black body jiendent from a tall
pine about half a mile from the town. The negro's
name was Aaron Bracy, and he was placed there, a1
some moment selected from the silent hours of the
night previous, by tlic citizens of Auburn, who took
him from the custody of the law, to which he had
voluntarily doliverod himself after the murder of a
much respected iidiabitant of the place.

It is not often that a Chinaman kills a white woman
in California; yet there was such an occurrence at
Cooke Bai", near Sacramento, the 18th of Octobof.
Mrs Sarah Xeal, a respectable Irish woman with
four or live thousand dollars, kept a store at the tinio
and place above mentioned. Shortly after mid-day,
during the hours of business, while the woman liap-
pened to be alone in the store, a Chinaman ontoind
and with a knife cut her to death. The Chinaman

THE YEARS 18r)8-9.

shot,
,e of"
L and
to in

pre-
)riflc-
inally

poor
c liini
) hun-
3 been
a; but
Dis-

Somo
upon a
shoulil
in thai

was immediately hanged by the people. The cause of
the killing is not known; John's ways ai'e mysterious.
Harrison Morgan and Richard Wallace were ar-
rested the 30th of November 1858 on suspicion of
the murder of John Leary, constable of Columbia.
The prisoners w^ere lodged in jail at Sonora, and on
the 2d of December were taken to Columbia for ex-
amination. Wallace confessed to numerous thefts, but
denied the nmrder; aijainst Morjjan thei'e was stron^jer
evidence of guilt. Meanwhile the cloud of popular
opinion blackened without. The officers saw the
coming storm, and when ready to remove the prisoners
ordered the court-room cleared of spectators. The
sheriff's buggy was standing at the back door; and as
all seemed quiet, although the assemblage was large,
he did not anticipate danger. Sedgwick, the sheriff,
and Mullan, the marshal, took Wallace, while tlie
deputy sheriff and a constallj conducted Morgan. As
the party passed out, a rush was made by the crowd
for the prisoners. ^Morgan's keepers struggled man-
fully to hold him, and Morgan struggled manfully to
be held by them; but the mob was too many for them,
and away he went to his death. The sheriff, wlien he
.saw one prisoner lost, shoved Wallace back into tlio
court-room. There were now ccmiparatively few people
about the place, most of them having followed ^lorgan.
Yet there were enough to give the sheriff a severe
struggle before he succeeded in placing the prisoner
in the buggy beside the driver, and sending him as
last as the horse could run, with the mob liowlinsf at
his heels, toward the Sonora jail. Night canu' on
apace, cold and -'^''•idy. With the departure of the
sun the feverish passions of the multitude sul)sidetl.
The miners scattered to their homes; and where so
lately the infuriated mob had stirred the dust with
their wrestlings and rent the air with cries of venge-
ance, quiet I'cigned. Along the dusty road that
leads from Gold Springs came roundly racking a
dusky cliild of the Flower}' Land. A basket of tish

' ii

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

was on his head, and round liis heart played feline
strains of home. Just as he was passing under the
flume that crosses the road near the town his head
came in contact with a long swinging object, which
sent his basket of fish flying into the bushes. Look-
ing up he saw dangling about his head the grim corpse
of Morgan the murderer, left hanging there a few
hours before by his relentless executioners, John's
bieatli came wheezing; his coppery face assumed an
amber hue; his almond eyes grew round; the very
tail of him rose and pointed backward toward the
object of his consternation as he ambled swiftly into
town.

As late as 1859 pistol -carrying obtained at Mari-
posa. To see rational, civilized human beings mingling
friendlily or ])assing back and forth between neighbor-
ing towns with huge six-shooters strapped to their
waist, as if to kill and keep from being killed consti-
tuted an important part of each day's economy — it
was interesting. There was a whole volume of un-
evolved sociological science in it. It was most kind
in Mr Colt, just as gold was discovered in these parts,
to furnish Californians with such beautiful claws as
God had forgotten to give them. All animals but
man have weapons forged for them by nature; now
man has his, and the work of creation is complete.
Claw, cut, shoot, kill, thou more than wild beast! for
the brute does thus for food or safety, and under the
influence of instinct, while soul-endowed intellectual
man kills for nothing, oftentimes for the mere pleasure
of killinij.

The body of a murdered man named Shields was
found near Pine Grove, Sierra County, in the spring
of 18G0, and one John O'Donnell was suspected ol'
the crime. Shields was known to be the seducer
of O'Donnell's wife, and by the better portion of the
community the homicide was considered justifiable if
perpetrated by the man whose home had been thus
destroyed. Shields' friends, however, determined that

THE YEARS IrtOO-T..

868

O'Donnell's life should atone for the iriurder, and his
arrest was demanded. A legal trial was instituted,
where the conflicting testimony made it probable that
the jury would acquit him; but in case the jury dis-
agreed, O'Donnell was to be transferred to the
] )ownieville jail, thirty miles distant, to await further
investigation. The snow was deep at the time, and
the Shields pa/ty expressed fear that O'Doimell
might escape the authorities while being transferred.
To remove all uncertainty as to acquittal or esca])e,
the rough element banded, nunibering about one hun-
dred and forty men, and disguised, marched, toward
midnight the 2d of April, to the hotel where O'Don-
nell in the custody of a constable was taking supper.
Surrounding the building, they awaited the signal,
two pistol-shots, when the mob rushed forward,
entered the room, seized O'Donnell, and witliout
allowing him any time for preparation, led him to
Pratt's livery-stable, where they improvised a gallows
and executed him, leaving the body to disclose the
deed, but nothing to indicate the authors of the
tragedy.

In the spring of 18(51 at the mission of San
Gabriel crime assumed atrocious proportions in the
Ircquencv of abusive attacks by men upon their wives.
Within a week or two no less than three ( \ilifoinians
had been arrested for inhuman treatment of women,
one of whom had been sentenced to the state- j)rison
\'ov tive years; another was in jail awaiting sentence,
while the third, Alvitre, received immediate punish-
ment by the peoph% as the following account details:
.b>se Claudio Alviti'e, a har.l-driidcing man sixty years
of age, lived with his wife at the old mission. They
had a family of twelve children, the most of them
grown up and away from home. The old man when
under the influence of liquor seemed to have an al-
most insane desire to abuse his wife, for which offence
ho had recently been imprisoned for four months. On
the 5th of May, after drinking freely, he tletermined

566

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

upon taking mcfre severe measures than ever, and
giving errands tb his several cliildren, was left alone
with his wife, whom he stabbed several times, causing
immediate death. As soon as the fact was made
known a crowd gathered about tlie house, and seizing
Alvitre, took him to a tree, where his countrymen
liad made preliminary [)reparations for his execution.
The circumstances needed no investigation; there was
no doubt that the woman had been nuirdered by his
liand. Accordingly he was placed on horseback be-
neath the tree, a lariat thrown over a limb, one end
noosed about his neck, and the horse driven from
under him.

Between Elizabeth Lake and Fort Tejon in March
18G2 some travellers discovered four bodies suspended
from trees. They had engaged in cattle-stealing witli
impunity for some time, but at last, overtaken by the
owners with the stolen cattle in their i)ossession, they
had been executed without trial, and their bodies leit
imburied as a warning to others.

Tlio 2 !tli of August 18G3 at Gilroy an Indian was
arrested for the murder of a teamster. The culprit
was committed for trial by the court, but the mob
took him from jail and hanged him from a tree in the
street. It w^as only a poor native; he had no money;
what was the use of trial?

Charles Barnhart and William Riggs, the 22d ol'
June 1865, at Susanville, cu route for Chico, quar-
relled about a piece of rope. The shortest way to
settle the difficulty ^\as for one to kill the other, and
this the former did. The shortest way to justice was
to hang the homicide with the same piece of rope,
and this the passengers immediately did, erecting
apparatus for the purpose from the trams of their
wagons. Ergo, of the three subjects to die contro-
versy, Charles, William, and the rope, there remained
onlj' the rope.

On the 19th of November 186G the store of John
Newhouse in Chipps Flat, Sierra County, was robbed

THE YEARS 1807-9.

:.07

of goods and provisions. The following night Xcw-
house went alone to search the premises of some
Chinamen whom he suspected of having committed
the robbery. As he did not return, his friends became
alarmed and went in search of him. Aftei- visiting
several Chinese camps to no purpose, there appeared
enough suspicious circumstances t(-) justify them in
arresting a Chinaman called Whalebone. Promising
no harm should befall him if he would confess what
he had done with Mr Newhouse, he led thcin to a
place where the body lay. The Chinese had cut it in
two, that they might the more easily dispose of it.
The body was removed to Chipps Flat, and Whale-
bone was brought before the justice of the jK^ace, wlio
began a legal inquiry. The report of the nunder having
spread, a crowd of two hundred minors gathered round
the mutilated corpse, the sight of whicli so exasperated
them that, in spite of all the officers could do, tliey
burst into the court-room and took the trembling
Whalebone and stoned him to death; then hanged
the body to a limb of a tree. After that they wtnit
tJirough the Chinese camp and levelled every cabin
to the ground. It was only by the utmost eti'oits of
officers and the better portion of the comnuuiity that
a general destruction of all the Chinese propert}- in
the county was prevented.

Another execution at San Juan is recorded as
having occurred on the IGth of May 18G7. One
Elder Thompson, working for F. Ross, assaulted Mi-s
Ross in the absence of her husband. Thompson was
arrested, and while being taken to jail to await the
action of the grand jury, the stage in which lie was
riding was brought to a halt by a band of masked
men, who, seizing the prisoner, dragged him to a tree
and hanged him. The neighbors found the body
there the next day and buried it.

Estdvan was a bad Indian; and when under a tree
in the alameda of San Juan on the morning of the
21st of August 18G7 the body of William Fitzgerald

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

was found dead, suspicion fell on Estdvan, for he had
been seen to leave the town that niorninij. Pursued
and brought back, ho was regularly tried by the people
and executed beneath the same tree where lay his yet
unburied victim. His guilt was clear, some of the
dead man's clothing being on his person when ar-
rested. Like a martyr, like a Roman, like any one
who manifested the utmost indifference to fate, sighing
no sighs, groaning no groans, praying no prayers, ask-
ing no favors from God or man, Estdvan died; and
yet he was only a poor bad Indian. For this no one
sings Estevan's praises; why then so laud the great
and good who die serenely?

At Gronnville, Plumas Conity, a reckless fellow,
Webb, stabbed and killed an unoffending citizen named
Gephart on the 30th of March 1868. Webb was
arrested by an officer, who was obliged to surrender
him to an incensed crowd and see him executed that
evening without trial or time for preparation.

Considerable suffering was caused the settlers round
Clear Lake from the overflow of waters, which thej^
believed came from the dam thrown across Cache
Creek by the fiour and sawmill company. Failing to
obtain redress from the courts, three hundred men,
armed to the teeth, assembled at the mills on the IHth
of November 18G8 and began the work of destruction.
The sheriff witli his assistants appeared, but not only
were they unable to control so powerful a force, but
were themselves taken prisoners. A request was sent
the governor for trooj)s, but it did not reach him until
after the mills were burned and the dam torn away.

A gang of Mexican liorse-thieves was pursued by
Sheriff Bourland and his j^jo.we, of Tuolumne County,
in August 1 8(59, and overtaken between Hornitos
and Lai,ran«xe. The officer, meeting with resistance,
fired upon the Mexicans, killing three. They cap-
tured one named Robbes, who was taken to the sheriff
of Snelling, Merced County, with orders to be sent
by him to Sonora. A deputy sheriff started with him

THE YEARS 1870-5.

560

had
jueil
oplo
i yet
' tho
I ar-
r one
jhhig
, ask-
; and
o one
great

oUow,
lamcd
b was
render
d that

round
they

Cache

ing to
men,
ir)th

action.

only

e, but

as sent
until
away,
ed by
ounty,
ornitos
stance,
y cap-
sherift'
e sent
th hiiu

in a buggy, but was stopped on tho way within a few
miles of Lagrange by lour masked men, who seized
the prisoner and hanged him.

From the calaboose at Watsonville three men, com-
mitted for the nmrder of one Indian Bill, were taken
by a mob to Pdjaro bridge and there hanged on the
n'ight of tho IGth of May 1870.

In the jail-room of the Oroville court-house on the
morning of the 24th of August 1870 C. Olsen lay
(^onlined for the killing of M. Logan. Before day-
break about forty men surrounded the premises and
j)osted their sentinels at each corner and at the en-
trance. A party of them then entered the jailer's
loom, in the basement of the building, and seizing the
undcr-shoriff', Vera, wrested from him the keys of
tho jail. No one present knew how to use them ex-
cept Vera, and he refused to reveal his knowledge.
The jail door was then battered down, and the cell
entered where Olsen was confined. Dark hints of
l)l()ody acts done within those narrow walls were
thrown out, but nothing definite is known. That Olsen
was shortly afterwaid taken to a derrick near the
railroad station and hangea was a fact palpable to nil.

At Bakersfield on the Gth of September 1870 Juan
(le Dies Sepijlveda, of Los Angeles, was taken from
the custody of the sheriff to a cotton-wood tree near
by and hanged by the people. During the day the
great number of native Californians well armed and
most of them mounted had been remarked. These
had leagued with the white citizens of that vicinity
to rid the country of bad characters. Sepiilveda had
been before Justice Jones for examination, and when
he was brought out, one of the horsemen rode up to
the officer as if to speak to him. Watching his oppor-
tunity, he suddenly seized the prisoner; the crowd
jiressed round to his support, and luirrying the un-
fortunate man away, they accomplished their purpose.

In El Dorado County some jewelry was stolen
during the winter of 1872, and suspicion fastening

570

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

i'v '

upon a Chinaman, ho was tortured by atraugling throo
times, to extort a confession as to the liiding-placc of
the vakiables. As he reiterated to the last his inno-
cence and ignorance of the theft, he was Hberated.
There was an arbitrary execution in Cholame Valley in
1873, and several bad characters were expelled from
Gilroy and Salinas.

George Blanchard was a young man from New
England, twenty years of age, employed on a rancho
in 1874 by a Mr Wild at San Luis Rey. Patrick A.
Graliani, a neighbor, brought to the rancho a horse
belonging to Wild, which he said had strayed upon
his land. Graham told Blanchard there was fifty
cents to pay, which he would call for the following
day. Accordingly he went to Wild's house, and was
met at the door by Blanchard, who shot and instantly
killed him, neither having spoken a word. On Satur-
day, the 14th of February, Blanchard was found on
the banks of the San Luis Rey River hanging from
a tree, the rope looped at the back of his neck and u
wooden gag tied in his mouth with a buckskin string.
Notliing was ever discovered in explanation of how or
by whom the hanging was done.

At Silver Mountain one Reusch shot a man named
Ericcson in the back of tlie head. Some of the citi-
zens banded, believing that unfair means would hv.
used to clear Reusch. On the night of the 17th of
April 1874, while deputy sheriff Davidson, accom-
panied by eleven witnesses, was conveying the pris-
oner to Bridgeport, Mono County, he was met by a
body of vigilants near Johnson's br: Ige, who forcibly
took Reusch froi the wagon and ordered the others
to proceed to th turn of the road and wait there ten
minutes. An in* rope was at once placed round the
prisoner's neck a d the other end fastened to the

the wretch begged, "My God!

) my father! my poor mother 1 will

The mercy he had denied his iu-

bridge. Piteousl
what can I say?
no one save me?'

nocent victim could not be granted him. A moment

A LATTER-DAY OUTRAGE.

671

later and a piercing shriek broke the awful stillness;
the fall, twelve feet, was so great that tlie rope broke
and the body foil a distance of twenty foot. C. P.
Goff, counsel for Reusch, and Mrs L. C. Brittan we- e
warned " by an outraged comniunity," as the t)rder
was signed, to leave the county within thirty days.

At Windsor, Sonoma Count}^ two well known
farmers named Rowland and Charles W. Henley had
I'anchos adjoining. A feud had existed between them
concerning their land rights, which Henley brought
to a crisis on the morning of the 9th of May 187G,
wlien, in the midst of a quarrel, he raised his shot-
gun and discharged some bird-shot into the body of
Rowland, who fell mortally wounded. Henley at once
started for Santa Rosa, where be delivered himself to
the authorities and stated the facts. He said that
he had acted in self-defence; but as there were no
witnesses, the case in court would prove douljtful.
Henley was a white-haired man of fifty-five, and
married; Rowland was ten years younger, and un-
married. Naturally a trial should folJDW and jus-
tice be administered. But at midnifjht on the 9tli of
June a force of one hvmdred masked and armed men
took possession of the jail. They had cut the bell-
rope of the engine-house to prevent an alarm, had
captured the watchman near the prison, and had en-
tered Sheriff Wilson's house, obliging him to dress and
come with them to the jail, leaving a guard of eight
or ten to see that the women should not make known
their plans. Arrived at the jail, they surrounded the?
sherift', and with pointed [)istols ordered the various
gates and doors to be opened, their men stationing
themselves in positions designated. Then Wilson was
told to unlock Henley's cell. There lay the prisoner
sleeping peacefully. Suddenly awakened to the awful
reality, he exclaimed brokenly, " Oh Lord, boys ! my
life!" Not a word more, for he was gagged, bound
liand and foot, and hurried out of prison. The crowd
moved on, leaving ten men to guard the watchman

572

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

and sheriff, who after a while were told to lock the
prison, extinguish the lights, and enter a wagon,
which they did. They were then driven to a place
known as Gravel Slough, where they were released
and allowed to walk home. They immediately notified
the authorities, who proceeded to look for Henley,
whom they found hanging from the limb of an oak
within one hundred and fifty yards of the spot
where the sheriff was released. The press condemned
the proceedings in strong terms. The Sonoma Demo-
crat of June \7t\\ says:

"For the first time in its history Santa Rosa lias been outrageously dis-
graced by the violence of a mob. We do not hesitate to denounce the act as
a dastai'dly outrage on the law and on common decency. There can be no
excuse sufficient for overturning and bringing into contempt the majesty of
the law which protects the 'i^e and property of every citizen."

Says the San Francisco Post:

"One of the most reprehensible cases of Ijmching that has over occurred
in this state took place at Santa Rosa on Satunlay morning. Howsoever
guilty he may have been in this one act, he was not a desperado, not a man
dangerous to tlie community, where for many years lie had lived an inoffensive
life, lie was led away from the even tenor of his course by extraordinary
circumstances, and was awaiting in jail the i^unishment which the courts
might inflict. Under such circumstances he is ruthlessly seized by a mob and
hanged. Public sentiment must condemn such an act, an<l no effort should bo
S[)ared to bring the pc'iictrators of the crime to justice. The era of vigilance
committees has passed in this state. There is no longer a shadow of excuse
for their action, and the heinousness of such an offence is as mucli greater than
ordinary murder as organized crime is more deplorable than individual viola-
tion of law. "

It was a gay wedding, but it was the dance of death
which followed. The ceremony of uniting Thomas
Flanagan and Mary Pina was performed by Judgt;
Harrison at Sanel Valley the evening of the 20th of
December 1875. Among the honored guests was
William Grangeiic, a ropentont thief, who had servetl
a term in the state-prison for grand larceny. Whilo
this man wa'j standing on a box near the window a
ball fired from without came crashing through tlic
glass, came crashing through the ex-convict's skull,

DOINGS AT SANTA CRUZ.

573

liberating the crime-concocting intelligence therein
contained, liberating mysterious life, and leaving only
the carcass prostrate upon the floor. Jose Antonio
Igarra, once of Vasqucz' band, was suspected and
arrested, but while the examination was proceeding
Ijcforc Justice Dooley at Hopland, a band of undis-
guised men entered the court-room, took thence the
])risoner, and hanged him from an oak in the street
three hundred yards distant. Grangcne had lately
given evidence in court which Igarra did not relish.

Near Cloverdale in December 187G one Joseph
Murphy was taken by masked men from the hands of
the constable while on the way to Santa Rosa with
the prisoner, who was accused of horse-stealing. Con-
ducted by his captors a little distanco from the road,
^lurphy was gentl}^ elevated in the attitude of in-
tended strangulation three several times for the pur-
pose of enforcing a confession as to who were his
uccomplices. But Joseph told nothing, and so was
handed back to the officer, who had been meanwiiile
guarded by members of the party.

At Santa Cruz, the 3d of May 1877, from the cross-
beams of the upper San Lorenzo bridge, within three
hundred yards of the spot where he was born, at the
age of twenty-one Josd Chan.alis was hanged by
about forty masked men. Francisco Arias, born near
Pesoadero thirty- eight years previous, was executed
at the same time and place. The two men had been
arrested a short time bet'ore for the murder of De
Forest, and had confessed the crime. Chamalis had
served a term of three vears in the state -prison for
the robbery of a widow named Rodriguez. Arias had
served the same time for the nmrder of a sheep-herder
ill San Luis Obispo, and two years for robbing the
liouse of P. Murphy of Watsonville. The two jail-
1 li ids were then free. The circus coming to Santa Cruz,
they desired to see it; during their long residence at
San Quentin they had not enjoyed a single evening's
amusement of that character. But they had no money.

574

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

1"; s ;■

1-*

" Never mind," said Arias, " we will get some." So
De Forest coming along. Arias fired at him ; but fail-
ing to bring him down, he fired again, this time with
fatal success. Eight dollars were secured by this
achievement, and the now happy pair went to the
circus, and no doubt enjoyed it hugely.

All which doubtless was very exasperating to the
iieigtibors and friends of the slain man and to the
people of Santa Cruz. For circus -money to kill an
unoffending man while quietly walking tlie road, and
then almost to boast of it, exhibited a human deprav-
ity of lower depths than language can reach. The
men should die, and quickly; of that there could be
but one opinion. But the Santa Cruz of 1877 was
not the Santa Cruz of 1853. Either we must have
laws and obey them, else not. If the friends of De
Forest may break into jail and hang two very bad
men who are surely guilty, and so save the state much
trouble and money, may not the friends of the next
man slain seize and execute the slayer, when it was
not sure he was deserving of death?

The necessity for forty men to blacken their faces,
secure the jailer, break open the prison, seize two
prisoners, place them in a wagon, drive them to a plan;
of execution, halter their necks to a beam, and then
drive the wajjon from under them, was no more neces-
sary at this time in the quiet and respectable young
city of Santa Cruz than in San Francisco, Boston, or
London. In the one place, as in the others, the prison
was secure, the officers faithful, and the judges just.
There was no shadow of excuse for passionate summary
execution. In the annuls of punishment upon this
coast I have not met an instance so utterly inexcusa-
ble. There are many more brutal and unjust, but
none so uncalled for. What these forty men did was
simply this : They defied righteous law, brought com-
petent justice -dealing courts into contempt, and com-
mitted murder. Life and projierty are little less secure.
in the midst of a rabble ready to avenge one crime In'

VERY BAD CASES.

committing another than in a society where every
man is his own jucge and executioner.

Good men will always lament the unnecessary re-
sorting to popular means for the punishment of crime.
The duty popularly to punish crime in the absence of
adequate government has not been usually a pleasant
one. Gladly did the people here welcome good gov-
ernment when it came; gladly, as a rule, did they
leave punishment to the law when the law was honest
and capable. When it was not, it is my pride to say
they were not slow to detect it; they were not slow
to see, to think, to act. Of one thing we raay be
sure, namely, that no more in the Pacific States than
elsewhere in America is there a disposition to ad-
minister popular justice. For every case in California,
like this of Santa Ci'uz, during the last decade wo
might cite ten elsewhere : like the hanging of Stevens
and Andrews at Warrensburg, Missouri, the 21st
of May 1867; and thai of Kennedy and others at
Wyoming; and Evans, Hall, and White in Alabama;
or even the threatened organization of a vigilance
committee in our federal capital.

"I feel devilish and must kill somebody 1" exclaimed
Justin Arajo as he sat in a store at San Juan, Mon-
terey County, about noon the 12th of July 1877.
Going to the door he saw some one standing by the
post-office. " That man's my meat," ho said, and
<h'awing his pistol, shot him through the breast, killing
him instantly. Arajo then attempted to fly, but was
caught anil incarcerated. ^lanuel Butron was the
name of the victim. As night came on, sleepy justici^
aroused itself anil shook out its musty robes. About
one o'clock maskeil men overj)owered the jailer, took
from him the key, entered the prison, and taking the
villain to a willow- tree on the alameda did him to
death. Never again will Justin Arajo feel devilish in
this world; he is now where he may enjoy devilishness
in a world witliout end.
Christopher Mutchler attempted to fire Hagermann's

676

INFELICITIES AND ALLEVIATIONS.

saloon in Germantown, Colusa County, on the night
of April 30, 1878, and while so engaged received three
shots in the thigh from persons then in the house.
The incendiary was arrested, but no one appearing
against him he was discharged. Fearing violence
from the citizens, who threatened him, Mutchler at-
tempted to leave town, but found exit barred, even
the stage men refusing to carry him. Nevertheless
he managed to drive away in a private conveyance
during the night, but was soon arrested and brought
back on charge of having threatened the life of J.
Kelley. Not long after, fourteen masked men en-
tered the place where Mutchler was confined, dragged
him into the street, and shot him to death. Mutch-
ler had money; the prosecuting attorney had none;
the judge had but little. After an interview with the
incendiary, on his first arrest, the prosecuting attorney
declared there was no case, and the judge discharged
the prisoner ; tlien the prosecuting attorney absconded
and the judge resigned.

Thus we see how the work goes on, even to the
present day; and we may be very sure it will continue
until law courts cease to ba but a mockery of justice.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE DOWNIEVILLE TRAGEDY.

Souls made of fire, and children of the sun,
With whom revenge is virtue.

Young.

It was a rare thing in California, extremely rare,
for rough men to lay their hands upon a woman.
About the only sentiment of youthful memories
which with time and distance had not only remained
but had become softly intensified, was that of home
hallowed by the tender influence of mother, sister, or
that nearer, sweet other self, wife. So woven among
the fibres of the heart was it, so mingled with the
sensuous blood, so wrapped within the folds of pas-
sionate imagination, that, like ash-covered coals, the
drearier the aspect without, the warmer glowed the
fire within.

They could cut each other with knives — these
miners, riddle enemy or friend with bullets and smile
at it; they could strangle a sluice-box thief, snap the
neck of a Chinaman by a twist of his pigtail, whet
their appetite for breakfast by the butchery of a
rancheria of natives, but injure a child, ill-treat an
old man, or do violence to woman, they could not.

The}'- were men, every inch of theni men — coarse
and brutal in some respects, but still men. They
could do wickedness by the canonful, but it must be
manly wickedness done in a mani}' way.

Woman was their weak point; the memory of
woman the onlv tliinu: mellow about them. Since the
Uay when chivalry lil'ted her from feudalistic abase-

Pop. Tbiu., Vol. I. 37 (577)

678

THE DOWNIEVILLE TRAGEDY.

ment, endowed her with charms and graces human
and divine, fought for her on the fields of knight-
errantry, and adored her as the i^^imaculate mother
of God, woman has not been so idohzed.

A woman to a mining -camp brought the odor of
Araby, brought the sunshine of Eden. The atmos-
phere was mellowed by her influence; the birds sang
sweeter for her coming, the ground was softer to sleep
on, the pick was lighter, and whiskey less magnetic.
Fair was the form of her, radiant her presence, thrill-
ing her touch. Her dress was as the drapery which
shrouded the mysterious holy of holies, and sacred was
the hem of her garment.

It mattered not so much to them who or what she
was; she might be chaste and fair or as wicked as
Jezebel, she was the impersonation of their fancy-
ridden brain, the expression of their innermost icieal
of the beautiful and good. Possessed in all thi)\ s
else of physical affinity with debasement, the thought
of her was the sister of their solitude. Open their
hearts, and there amidst the debris of a thousand
crushed longings her image alone remained unbroken.

Then wild indeed must be the fury that maddened
them against a woman; and never was insensate ;
wrath more manifest than among the miners of the
Yuba for miles on either side of Downieviile when,
on the morning of July 5, 1851, it was known that
a comrade had been slain, butchered with a long sharj »
knife, and by a woman. The matter of sex was sud-
denly lost sight of, swallowed in the gulp of passion
which left nothing to the mind but the abominable
bloody fact.

Joe Cannon killed! Cut to the heart, and by a
woman! The words were confusing. The breath that
uttered them came labored; thick it was, and murky
in its significance. The blood, receding from the heart,
clogged in the veins, and respiration was well nigh
throttled by the messengers of the brain. J' t was
the favorite of the camp, the finest fellow that ever

JOE CANNON.

579

nan

Tht-

ther

)r of

mos-

sang

sleep

nctic.

tlirill-
wliicli
3(1 was

lat she

keel as

faij;-y-

it icieal

:liougUt

n their

lousaiul

broken.
,ddened
sensatc
5 of tlie
e wlieu,
,vn tliat
ig sliav|»

Ivas sud-

ssiou

)minal)lo

id by '^

[ath tlKit

murlvV

liclieavt,

Ihat ever

swung a pick or dislodged a bowlder. He was over
six feet high, straight as a poplar, with limbs as clean
as those of a newly barked madrono. In weight lie
fell not far short of two hundred and forty, and it was
all muscle; his chest was like that of an ox, and the
arms of Hercules hung from his shoulders. And yet
he would not harm a fly; his heart was as tender as
liis sinews were tough. Joe gone! Stabbed to death,
and by a woman I

He was the soul of honor, w^as Joe Cannon. He
knew not the meaning of the words cheating and
cliicanery. He was not very learned; single and sim-
ple were his thouglits, and double-dealing found no
place in his accounts. He liked his occasional frolics.
The strongest need a respite ; one cannot always work ;
but though he could laugh and carouse with the Ijcst
of them, lie was kinder in his cups, if possible, than
out of them. There was no poison in his heart that
the most fiery liquid could bring to the surface. In
nobleness only he was a giant; in guile he was a child.
Joe Cannon dead! Stabbed in the breast, and by a
woman !

Slowly as with its fullest force the fact was realized,
at last it settled on them that it was true; and from
the friction of the ebb and flow of heart and brain
tides there sprang a heat which, increasing with tlic
whirl of thought, glowed all the fiercer from being
smothered beneath stifled emotions.

All along the muddy Yuba, and up its muddy trib-
utaries, the accursed tidings sped like an electric mes-
sage, telegraphed from claim to claim, until for mik;s
round Downieville were heard the cries of "Murder!"
"Joe Cannon killed !" " Cut to the heart by a woman !"
Tlien dropped pick, pan, and shovel as from palsied
hands; water was left to run to waste, and the gold
un watched in the bottom of the sluice-boxes; and from
up and down the muddy Yuba, and down its muddy
tributaries, streams set in, streams of angry miners,
silently flowing, though hot with melted emotions.

THE DOWNIEVILLE TRAGEDY.

Five thousand men and more gathered In Downie-
ville that day. Thronging the streets were traders,
packers, and prospectors, gamblers, prostitutes, and pol-
iticians, professional rascals and rascally professional
men, besides the miners from the thickly studded line
of claims that mutilated the river beds, and banks, and
gulches all up and down the foothills.

At ten o'clock the deed was done, and at eleven,
surrounding an unfinished tenement of split-boards
into which the unfortunate man was carried when
stricken, was a dense throng. Within, just where he
was first laid on a slightly sloping puncheon floor, lay
the dead miner. No, not yet quite dead; life seems
loath to leave a mechanism so perfect and of such fair
proportions. The breath comes light and fitful, though
from strong lungs still struggling to perform their
functions. A broad stream of blood has clotted for
itself a channel from the breast to the extremity of
the floor. Standing round the prostrate form were
half a score of miners fresh from their work, with
their woollen shirt-sleeves rolled up above the elbows,
and their overalls tucked into the tops of their pon-
derous and muddy boots; silently and solemnly they
stand with their grizzly heads uncovered and slightly
bowed, while round the contracted brow and com-
pressed lips sorrow and anger struggle for the mastery.

Silence within and silence without, until at length
the slauijhtered miner ceased to breathe; then from
the deep stillness there rose a murmur, at the fir.st
almost as faint as had been the dead man's breath,
but gradually increasing into a low deep buzz, which
every border man in an angry multitude instantly
recognizes as significant of blood. Ex})ressive to the
last degree and deadly ominous is that sound, coming
as it does from a silent multitude, breathing an uu-
s]ioken vengeance more terrible than the loudest
truiiipetings of passion.

Soon men began to apeak in words. Fresh arrivals
came j)ouring in. Strangers asked. Who is he? Who

POOR JUANITA.

081

nie-

ors,

pol-

onal

line

, and

jvcn,
)ards
ivhen
re he
r, lay
ieoms
h fair

lOUgll

their

cd for

lity of

1 were

, with

IboNVB,

pon-

thcy

ghtly

coni-

astcry.
ongth
from
10 first
jrcath,
which
itantly
to the
comiuy'
an uu-
loudest

irrivals
I? Who

killed him? Where is the murderer? Presently the
centre of the mass from standing groups and pur-
poseless indirection began to surge in a definite direc-
tion, signifying all too plainly that it was time for
some one to prepare for a sudden and decisive change.
Pregnant enough with purpose were now the miners.
You could see it in their eye, in their step, in the
movement of the hand; their pipes smoked of sul-
j)hur, and with their tobacco-juice they spat fire.
Most significant of all, however, was the almost
silent buzz, which was the low purring of the blood-
thirsty beast about to spring upon its prey.

It was a little woman; young, too — only twenty-
four. Scarcely five feet in height, with a slender sym-
metrical figure, agile and extremely gractiful in lier
movements, with soft skin of olive hue, long black
hair, and dark, deep, lustrous eyes, opening liko a
window to the fagot-llames which, kindled with love
or hate, shone brightly from within. ]\Iexico was liur
country; her blood Spanish, diluted with the aborig-
inal American. Her name was Juanita. The man
she killed, with one hand could have picked hcv up
and tossed her into the Yuba River. He was an
Englishman and an Australian colonist, but not a man
of Sydney in the sense then current.

Though a stalwart Britisher, yet he could not let
pass the iunnortal Fourth witliout assisting at its
observances. True, it was not a memorial of his (,'oun-
trj's greatness; but while the Yankee celebrated
America's successes might he not join him and cele-
hiate England's defeat? Wh^^ should we call to mind
our glorious gains and not our no less valuable losses?
The lesson was })rolitable to England, and surely her
Australian colonist might pro[)erly acknowledgi' it.
Thouii'h in truth Joe Cannon thou<>lit more of the
potation part of the performance than of the patriotic.
Any day was Fourth of July to him and worthy
celebration in which his comrades would turn out and
carouse in company.

THE DO^VNIEVILLE TRAGEDY.

And this time thoy had made a glorious night of
it. Joe Cannon, with the rest of them, was very
drunk, and consequently very happy. From store to
(store, from house to house, up and down the streets
and through all the streets they went, rapping up the
in mutes, compelling the master of the house to treat
and then to join them. It was rare fun.

Passing the premises of a Mexican monte-dealer,
Joe Cannon kicked at the door. As he was not in
condition to stand steadily on one foot and carefully
to weigli the force of the other as it went against the
dooi', he may have given it a little harder blow than
he intended or than was necessary. As the door was
secured only by leathern hinges, it fell in. At least
so the boys told him next morning — that he had
kicked in the jNIexican's door.

That was all right, said Joe. He knew the monte-
dealer well, and had often bet an ounce or two in
passing his table; the damage could not be great; he
would go around after breakfast, pay it, and apologize.
True, there was the wife, or she whom the man lived
with as with wife: she might not perhaps appreciate
the foreign patriotism which so disturbed rest — but
she was a bashful, retiring little thing; no one thought
of lier. Besides, they were INIexicans, and their foot-
ing Avas not by any means too secure in the commun-
ity as it was. A man, a miner, a big burly favorite,
what were fifty Mexican gamblers and their mis-
tresses to him? Nevertheless no man should be able
truthfully to say that Joe Cannon ever did him wrong,
drunk or sober.

Approaching the house, Joe found the door still
down. The Mexican was within; and placing a hand
on either door-post to steady himself withal, for his
head seemed now as big as a barrel, and his legs were
a little shaky, he began talking to the man in broken
Spanish as best he could. Suddenly from a corner
where she had lain concealed, quick as a flash the
little woman sprang up, threw herself upon the strong

DOOMED TO DEATH.

ns.'i

ir foot-
Inuiuu-
ivorito,
Ir mis-
10 able
wrong,

man's breast, and buried her knife in his bosom. Tt
was all done in an instant, and he who had eome to
make reparation lor a trivial injury eonunittod in a
moment of frolic, he, the picture of physical perfection,
the pride of the camp, lay as dead.

Why did she do it? l)id this man visit her house
to insult her? Had they ever met or had intercourse
at any time; and was there ill-will existing on cither
side? No one know. Who shall fathom a woman's
heart? All those miners knew or cared to know was
that for so slight a thing as she it was a monstrous
blow. The bowie-knife was large and sharp, imd t(»
send it into his gigantic frame, through his shirt and
through the breast-bone clear into the heart, that
little arm must indeed have been temjioi'ed l)y most
murderous passion.

And now, when the enraged minors with a blow of
the fist burst her door and stood before her, Juanita
manifested not the slightest fear; and yet she knew
that she must die. It was not defiance, nor bra/.eii
impudence; she assumed no character — she acted only
the primary sentiment of her nature, and that was
stoical submission to inexorable fate, or more sinii)ly,
cool courage.

She know that she nmst die, and there \^ as an end
of it. Within range of })istol-shot were two thousand
men, each one of whom, if standing alone, harbored
that moment determined purpose sufficient to insure
lier death, and she knew it; the very certainty of the
result seemed tt) disarm death of its sting. Ijvery
one of thovengel'ul two thousand now arrayed against
her would soon die; she must go now. Well! will
any one of thorn have a more gorgeous exit hence
than she?

Hastily putting in place some scattered articles,
and glancing carefully at her dress — she was already
attired in her best — she signified her readiness to go.
The blaze of angry eyes, the forest of frowning faces
through which blew deadly nmrnmrings, were all

&84

THE DOWNILVILLE TRAGEDY.

lost on her; she was thinking of her own affairs,
thinking should she send soniotliing to lier friends,
thinking ahout her household, and how her hushand
would do in her absence. Of course they would hang
lier; as for the paraphernalia of trial it might be some
gratification to tlieni, but it was nothing to her.

There yet stood near the centre of the town a large
pavilion, which had been erected for the celebration
ceremonies the day before; there was a raised plat-
form, with chairs and table, just the place for the
occasion, and there the dark-eyed bashful little mur-
deress was conducted by her guard of two thousand.

Twelve men responded eagerly to the call for a jury;
happy he who should have any part in this gentle
stranjjulation. Glancing at each other and at the
miners round them, they seemed to say, "All is safe
and settled ; woman or no woman, she hangs." Law-
yers for the defence were backward in presenting
themselves; there were jjlenty for the prosecution.

Probably in the history of mobs there never was a,
form of trial more farcical than this. Had they hanged
the woman immediately, our I'cspoct would be greater
than when we see a criminal so absolutely and uni-
versally prejudged and sentenced before trial. Xevei'
have I met an instance where so many men, or a
tenth of them, were so thoroughly ravenous in their
I'evengc. It was wholly unlike them. It seemed that
on the instant they had not only thrown aside their
usual chivalrous adoi'ation of sex, but that now they
would wreak their relentless disaft'ection on the object
of their abhorrence in prcportion to their strengtli
and lier weakness.

That there was so littl.' jf this little woman to
pulverize and scatter secniod to exasperate them. A
humane ])hysician, Dr C3'rus D. Aiken, mounted the
stand and testified that she was not in a fit condition
to be hanged. What such testimony had to do with
the case nobody knew or cared. A howl of disap-
proval followed ; the good doctor was driven from the

TRIA . BY JURY.

585

stand, driven from tlio town, and dared not return
or show himself i'or several days. A Mr Thayer of
Nevada attempted a speech on behalf of the prisoner,
as there was not a lawyer who had the courage to
stem the tide of unpopularity in her defence, but ho
was beaten off the platform — ay, kicked from the tri-
bunal; and on reaching the crowd without, where a
passage-way was opened for him, he was kicked along
this gauntlet out of town, being glad to get across the
river with his hat and mule behind him.

John B. Weller, then running for congress, was at
the hotel overlooking the tribunal. He was besought
to go out and speak to the mob, but hj had no ambi-
tion that way. He was not of the stuff of which
martyrs were made. There were times and places for
all things; a time for advocating law and order, and
a time for refraining from such advocation; and clearly
this, in the eyes of John B. Weller, country- server,
was one of the latter times.

So Juanita was tried; but the trial was a sad, one-
sided affair, in which there was a total absence of
that love of fair-play so characteristic of the Amoiican
miner. No one dared to say a good word for hor; no
one was allowed to defend her. In so far as slie was
small and weak, and they were many, and great, and
strong, in so far did their insensate fury intensity with
the [)rogress of afRiirs. For the moment the men of
that region seemed baptized l>y Satan for the execu-
tion of a work of infernal grace.

When the verdict was foi'mally declared, Juanita
«;'ave a quiet little laugh, as if to say, How drolll
Tliose great Aniorican men think in this a})ing of
ancient forms they have given their pi'isoner a trial.
Stroke conscience the right way and you can do miy-
tliing with it.

In the four hours allowed her before her execution,
Juanita made her will verball}^, arranged her alfairs,
and gave her few eflects away. During it all her
heroism carried her far beyond the usual stolid forti-

kif

|iih

686

THE DOWNIEVILLE TRAGEDY.

tude of lier race. At a time when men tremble and
pray she was her natural self, neither gay nor sad.
She was as far from looking lightly on the matter as
ijiving way to senseless sorrow.

The builder of the bridge that spanned the Yuba
had left at about the middle of it two uprights with a
beam across, as if for the express purpose of hanging.
It was just the place for the occasion, though from
that point, with the flowing river underneath, and on
cither side with the rolling hills in front, and in the
background the purple-misted mountains glowing in
the light of the almight}'' sun, it was too beautiful a
world for a 3^oung, free, light-hearted woman to wish
to leave.

With a light elastic step, surrounded by her friends,
chatting with them quietly on the way, Juanita walked
down to tliu bridge. She sliook hands with them all,
but not a tear, not a tremor was visible. By means
of a step-ladder she mounted to a scantling which had
been tied ibr her to stand on between the uprights
underneath the beam, took from her head a man'.s
hat which had been kindly placed there by a friend,
shied it with unerring accuracy to its owner, mean-
while smiling her thanks, then with quick dexterity
she twisted up her long black tresses, smoothed licf
dress, placed the noose over her head and arranged
the rope in a proper manner, and finally, lifting her
hands, which she refused to have tied, exclaimed,
Adios, seflorcs! and the latal signal was given.

The Downieville Vigilance^ Committee was not or-
ganized until after this affair, as the following letter
indicates :

"Downieville, July 27, 1851.
" To the Viijilance Committee of San Francisco: —

" Gkntlemkn : The citizens of this place have organized a vigilance coin
niittce for the purpose of protecting life and property. At one of their nuM t
ings they pa.ssed a resolution instructing me as tlioir corresponding sccrctiiiy
to coniniunicato with tlie vigilance committee of your city, with tlie view "i
eliciting what infoiiiiatiiiii you may he disposed to favor us witli in furth' i'
ance of tlie ol)jcct wc have in view. It is thought by keeping up a comniu-

WORSE THAN MOB JURY.

687

le and
)r sad.
bter as

; Yuba
with a

h from
and on
L in tlie
wing in
,utii'ul a
to wish

• friends,

a walked

bhem all,

iy means

'hich had

uprights

a man's

a friend,

H", mcan-

I dexterity

>thed her

arrangeil

Lfting her

ixelaimed,

en.

las not or-
ling letter

27, 1851.

[vigilance com-
jof their mcit
Lling secretavy
iitli the \io^\ "'
lith in fnrUi'V

|g"P

a coiuinii-

nication between the committees of the (liffereut points we might be of

mutual assistance, by keeping each other advised of the movements of noted

;ind suspicious characters. Any information, therefore, you may be .so kind

as to favor us with upon this subject will be both thankfully received ami

1 ociprocated by us. Our organization is quite complete, and we d'.^sign to keep

(inr doings a secret, except such as are from the nature of the case public.

therefore if you communicate with the committee of this place, please address

your letters to me in my private capacity.

"I remain, gentlemen, your humble servant,

"A. M. Brockelbank."

Commenting on this tragedy, the Sacramento Times
and Transcrqjt says:

"The act for which the victim suffered was one entirely justifiable under
the provocation. She had stabbed a man who had persisted in making a
disturbance in her house and had greatly outraged her rights. The vioh'iit
proceedings of an indignant and excited mob, led on by the enemies of the
luifortunate woman, were a blot upon the history of the stiite. Had .she
committed a crime of a really heinous character, a real Aineiican would liave
luvoltei, at such a course as was pursued toward this friendless and unjiro-
tocted foreigner. We had hoped the story was fabricated. As it is, tlu'
perpetrators of the deed have shown themselves and their race."

This editor goes far out of his way both to distoil
tlie facts and then to draw from them false conclu-
sions. The woman was not a friendless foreiijjncr, iioi-
was her act justifiable. The man she murdered offei'ed
her no violence, and she had no right to kill him, Tlie
])eople were right to hang her, but they were wrong
to do it madly and in the heat of passion.

But bad as weje tlie miner3 of Jjownievillc in their
dealings with criminals, they were not so bad as the
average San Francisco jury. I say far above the
action of the law in a noted fcmale-nuirdcr case wliich
the San Franc "sco courts bungled nearly twenty years
later, is the course of the Downieville miners to be
(excused. The cases are only partly j)arallel. In
))oth the slaycr« were women; but one killed a man
hecause he invc^viod her home, and the other because
lie j)referred his own wife before her. One was act-
uated by revenge, the other by jealousy; one slew
her victim because he liad treated her ill, the other

588

THE DOWXIEVILLE TRAGEDY.

If!

. ,1

)

n'%'

I;!!

:.!£,;:.

because he had treated her well. One killed a miner,
and the miners hanged her; the other killed a lawyer,
and the law let her go free.

If before this California, or the world, needed further
evitlence of the eccentricities of law, the trial of Laura
D. Fair for the murder of A. P. Crittenden offers
ample illustration.

Married at the age of sixteen to a Mr Stone, with-
in a year she was a widow; next for six months her
husband was Thomas Grayson, who freed himself by
divorce; then she married William D. Fair, who in
1861 was said to have committed suicide. At Sacra-
mento Mrs Fair kept a lodging-house for a time; after-
ward she appeared upon the stage at various times in
Sacramento and San Francisco. With the discovery
of silver in Nevada, she went to Virginia City and
there kept the Tahoe House, where in September
1863 Mr Crittenden took rooms. The acquaintance
there formed soon ripened into quasi affection.

Arrested for threatening to shoot her partner wliilr
])laeiug the national flag upon the hotel, Mr Critten-
den defended her. Subsequently she married our
Snyder, but was in less than two months divorced.
Before and after this marriage slie was on intimali
terms with Crittenden, and their intimacy was by in>
means i)rivate. At the time of the murder ]\Irs Fail
was about tliirty-live years of age. She was a woman
of extraordinary aptitude, with sufficient ocquirements
to make dangerous her attractions; in the e^^es of sonir
she was even beautiful.

Among the talented and culti\'ated of California,
none iaid;ed 1 uglier than Mr Crittenden. The law
firm Crittenden and Wilson, of which he was seniei'
member, was prominent among the few called first in
the profession. lie was a graduate at West Point,
ne[)hcw vi' .John J. Crittenden, United States senater
frciui Kentucky, and brothor-in-law of Tod llobinson,
supreme court re[)orter. ]]e was no less gent)emanl\ .
generous, warm-hearted, and honorable than lie was

A. P. CRITTENDEN.

mner,
wyer,

jrther

Laura

offers

, with-
hs her
self by
who in
Sarra-
; after-
imes in
scovery
ity and
)tember
lintancc

er wliil''
^rittoii-
icd our
ivoroed.
ntinuilt
,s by HO
ra Fair
woman
onicnts
of son 11'

lifornia,
'ho law
senior
first ill
Point,
I senator
bbinsoii,
Luuinly.
he was

able and distinsfuished. He was the husband of an
amiable, loving, and accomplished wife, and the father
of an interesting and intelligent family. He was about
fifty-eight years of age at the time of his death.

The nature of this anomalous attachment was,
on the part of Mr Crittenden, a strange infatuation
ratlier than reasonable afi'ection. All the while ho
loved and respected his wife; all the while she loved
and respected him ; all the while he was a father to
his children, protecting them, guiding them, loving
them. During a part of the seven years of this
unholy intimacy Mr Crittenden's family were at the
east, but the family relations were never severed.
While sensuous fancy obscured the path of duteous
dcjr>n:v and made him wanton for a while, his true
soli '.. then, as ever, with the right,

In speaking thus I do not mean in any way to
mitigate his wickedness or gloss his insane folly.
When an amiable, intellectual, chivalrous gentleman
so far forgets his duty to himself, his family, and to
society as to descend into the depths and there wallow
in swinish lust, tenfold more condemnation is his due
than merits one less favored. Nor would I throw the
blame upon his paramour. Though she played never
HO cunningly by her seductive charms upon his im-
pressionable nature, it was no excuse for him ; if the
low, th^ poor, and the unfortunate may not plead
temptation in iiiltlgation of their crimes, surely the
more favore-l of fortune should not be permitted to
do so. A- t > }nj.>tive blame, in this case as in most
cases, the ibult \vas ii\ore the man's than the woman's.
That she, a n^:. v'.'us woman of the world, should
strain her soul to win him, is less abhorrent to our
sense of morality than for him, for her embrace, to
descend from his high station, besmear his fair name,
and cruelly crush the hearts of loving wife and
children. Were she as mad with love for him as
iJido for ^neas, or Cleopatra for Antony, the fall
heneath I" fascinations opened to his view, and to

I! ' t|

590

THF DOWNIEVILLE TRAGEDY.

I;i!>i£

that of his friends, a weak, gross, baneful streak in an
otherwise spotless character.

Returning somewhat to reason after this long in-
dulfjence of his baser self, Mr Crittenden resolved to
sever his connection with the snx^n, and sent for his
family. The evening of their arrival, which was the
3d of November 1870, he crossed the bay upon the
Oakland ferry-boat to meet them. On their return,
while seated outside the cabin between his wife and
daughter, Mrs Fair, closely veiled, approached him,
and drawing a pistol fired, the ball penetrating the
left breast. Supported by Mrs Crittenden, he dropped
back in his sea. t.nd gradually sank to the llooi-.
Dropping the pisu( ibur-barrelled Sharp shooter,
Mrs Fair hurried iii, the cabin and mingled wit'i
the other passengers. Parker Crittenden, a son, with
a policeman who happened to be on board, went in
search of her. They soon found her, when the sou
said, "That is the woman; I accuse you of murdering
my father." The woman answered, "Yes, I don't,
deny it. I admit that I shot him; I don't deny it.
He has ruined me and my child. I was looking fur
the clerk to give mj'self up. Take me. Arrest me;
I am ready to go with you." Mr Crittenden lingered
for three days, when he died. Mrs Fair was in ap-
parent delirium for several days.

In due time the trial was begun. Mrs Fair, paK;
and weak, appeared in court arrayed in black silk an( I
veiled, accompanied by her mother and daughtci-, a
beautiful child (jf nine years. Having abundant means
at her command, two expert criminal lawyers were
engaged, and seated in a rocking-chair between them,
a -d attended by her physician, the prisoner took an
active interest in the proceedings. To the charge of
murder the accused pleaded " Not guilty," and set up
in defence insanity.

For thirty days the jury were kept together, and
forty minutes after the case was submitted to them
they returned with a verdict of "Guilty of murder in

LOVELY LAURA FAIR.

091

in an

ig in-
^ed to

or hi«
IS the
)n the
eturn,
fe and
I liim,
\cr the
L'oppcd
lioor.
[lOotcr,
d witU
n, witli
vent ill
,hc sou
rderinjj;
I don't
Icny it.

ing

)st

for
nic ;

ingcrei
in ap-

,ir, palt'
ilk and
liter, ;i
means
s wen'

■1 them,

ook au

arge of

set up

ler, and
[o tbem
irder in

the first degree." A motion for a new trial on the
ground of incompetency of jurors and for other rea-
sons was carried to the supreme court and granted.
At the second trial the prisoner was acquitted on the
ground of insanity and given her liberty.

Many years have now elapsed since this discharge,
during which time Mrs Fair has often appeared upon
the streets of San Francisco apparently no more insane
than others who have not killed their man. She does
not claim to have been insane long before the killing
nor long after. Just how much woman's love and
woman's hate, fired by alchemic passion into the mutal
jealousy, is sufficient to place the female mind outside
itself let doctors and law^^^s determine. But to dis-
cuss the question is idle in the extreme. Xo unbiassed
mind of averasje intellisxence for a moment doubted
that this woman was guilty of the crime of murder,
such as that for which the law intended those com-
mitting it should die. The people were disappointed,
indignant, that the tigress should be let loose upon
them; but patient and plodding as they arc, they were
now becoming accustomed to unquestioning obedience.
Nevertheless thev could but feel humiliated under the
issue of the affair. Yet there is nothing uncommon
about it; with numberless quibbles and technicalities
interposing between crime and punishment, with a
profession whose members glory in their dexterity in
clearing the guilty, with judges so blindly bound to
form as to be senselessly indifferent to the righteous-
ness of a cause, and with juries composed of men
iiiclced indiscriminately from shops and warehouses,
whose minds arc unaccustomed to weiijrhinjx evidence,
and who are casil}^ -swayed by their sympathies and
influenced by their prejudices, we must expect that as
a rule the guilty poor only will be punished while the
money of the rich buys pardon. Every appearance
of this woman upon the street is a commentary on the
injustice and incompetency of our judicial system.

When little Laura was in short dresses and playing

692

THE DOWNIEVILLE TRAGEDY.

with her dolls in Mississippi, being then twelve years
of age, William D. Fair and A. P. Crittenden were
sitting together in the same legislature, being the first
in California. One killed him.self and the other she
killetl. Broderick, murdered duellistically by Terry,
was also a member of this legislature. Lightly laughs
Satan : innocence, legislation, law, and suicide; woman,
law, and murder; lightly dances Satan!

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

Mark what unvario<l laws preserve each state,

Laws wise as nature, and as (ixM as fate.

In vain tliy reason finer wehs sliall draw,

Entanj^'le justice in lier net of hiw,

Anil right, too rigid, harden into wrong,

Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong.

"ope.

Were any ever disposed to praise tlie Mormons, or in
any wise to do them justice, then miglit the lovers oi'
law and order, the oj)[)oscrs of the vii^ilaneo principle,^
iL;ive them credit for livin;^ without mobs, without any
popidar, or legal, or other tribunal save those siini)lo
i'lirins which lead with the least possible time and cost
to justice. Did the advocate of vigilance reform
desire to praise them, he might point to the fact that
liere existed a society in v.diich the regretted necessity
was Avanting. How they dealt with their enemies,
the enemies of their religion, is another matter. We
do ours all the iniurv we can, and that while the i'alse
jirayer is on our lips that God will bless them.

In Carson Valley, near the Carson River, on the
Deseret road, the bodies of six persons, sup[)osed to
liave been murdered by banditti, were exhumed in the
autumn of 1851 ; concerning which ^Fr James F. Tvffe
ihus writes to the Sacramento Times and Trdnscri/if:

" My own observations, while over in tlie valley with the niounti'd nun
ill .Inly and August, with the information olituincd from the settlers, Icil me
t'l coincide with the opinion expressed by the emigi'ants, viz.: tii.it tin re is a
I'^iiiil of lawless and desperate men in Carson Valley, and th<' citizens, in pi'ti-
ti"iiing the governor for a small mounted force for protection, hail an eye ti>
thi-se gentry, although nothing at that time could be proved of sutliciiiit im-
li jitance to warrant their arrest."

Per. Tbid., Vol. I. 38 ( 5'Ja )

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

Lucky Bill was a j]fCK)(l fellow if lie was a \illaiii,
and owsrybody likud him. Ho owned in ISaf) ono
of the bi'st farms in Carson Valle v. Other iine tracts
of land he owned elsewhere, besides !j;-reat henls of
catlh'; indeed Lucky Lill lor the time and place was
rich. J^ut like many another to whom wealth has
brought from friends and nei_i;"hbors no additional I'c-
spect, as Lucky ])iirs riclies increased, his re])utatioii
lor honesty and intcLjrity diminished. Like many
another who havinjj^ acliieved a re[)utation for su[»erlor
ability or skill sj)oils it all by some act of insensate
lolly, so Lucky J)ill afti-r enjoying a long career of
the most fortunate good fortune, which secured him
home, family, friends, and every comf »i't, dissipated ail
by one, to him, most uiducky i\cv{\. Many of his ])!ac-
ticos wei'e looked u[K)n as somewhat nioi'e than shar]t,
'among which to bu}' stolen cattle, and t(t a[>pro])riati>
all .straggling stock ujxni which he could lay his hand,
werc^ among the least.

]\[urad the l^nlucky i'ancied i\ll the woi'ld against
him; Saladin the Jjucky grew in sell'-conlidenc;'
tiii'ough tile ins])iration of his luime. So it was with
wicked "William Thorrinuton, for tliat was Luckv liill's
true name; successful in little villainies, he undertook

gr(

,er ones, un

til 1

le u'rew

bold in his uidawriil

acts that sad grief at List overtook him. During liis
])almy days, surrounded by Vvife, and children, and
I'riends, there were none so happy and jovial as lie
His little irregularities he regarded as good jokes, and
often I'ecounted the story of a trick [)layed on sonic
passing euiigrant by which he had trained a wagon

an(

1 its contents, or a iine 1

tth

ith tl

lorse, or seNeral yoki

le same apparent satisfaction a soldi

el'

tells of his shootings. And as the man kept opiii
liouse and was by no means niggardly with the proji-
orty he had taken from others, it was a long timi' 1h-
foi'e his neighbors would allow themselves to be worricl
by disparaging rumors concerning him. At last, how-
ever, his avarice so far ac(|uired the ascendancy as ti)

THE 8T0RY OF LUCKY BILL.

59.-)

aiii,

at'ts

[s i)f
was
has

\ IV-

atioii
nany
»cr*it»i'
nsatc

H'l- (>r

I him
Led all

sliaris
H>iiat'.^
; hand,

f\ivah»st.
'/idi'iu'''
IS wUU

y IVllFs

lead him into the coininisyloii of a most lionihle and
inexcusahlo erimo. It liappeiied that in this ycaf
ISof) a Frenehman was lienlin'Lj Caht'oi-nian eattle ai
the Truckee llivei-, Thorrin^ton had plenty of jjfood
i;iazini^ land, and eoveted the cattle, but tlu; Fiencli-
nian wanted some compensation tor them, and Jjucky
Hill never [>aid lor that which could he more; easily
obtained by strata<^em or crime. There are manv
lucky liills about; lucky in that they escape han!"-
iniL"', as Lucky J^ill Thorrinj^ton did not.

There was a i'riend of Thorrinnton's, oni; Edwards,
Avho likewise wanted the cattle, and wlio had visited
the Frenchman for the purpose of buyiiii^j him out,
but as they could not agree ui)on the price the effort
was unsu(;cessful. ]']dwards often stopped at 'i'hoi-
rington's house; and one chiy during a conversation
on the subject, Thoi'rington coolly proposed that they
should kill the Frenchman and divide thesj)(»ils. JOd-
wards consented. Again visiting the Frenchman, on
some j)lausible ]»retext he decoyed liim some distance
from his canij), and then shot him and hid the body.
A I'orged bill of sale madi; Edwards the apparent,
owner of everything, and the Frenchman's j>ro[)erty
Avas duly dividetl by the consj)irators. JjUcky as ever,
thought iJill, as the time ])assed (juietly by alh-r this
last adroitly managed alVair. l>ut the evil-minded arc
never permanently lucky. Kwu if they contine tluir
rascalities within the limits of the law and so escape
legal punishment, that for which they sell their souls,
case, gratiiied ambition, happiness, they never get.
The devil is a shrewd [)ay master, feeding forever his
(le\()tc^es on the passions which tirst brought them
into his service. 1"he Frenchman's I'riends in ( 'ali-
Ibrnia, neither seeiuLif nor heaiini; from him Ibr so
long, feared some evil had befallen him, and instituted
investigations which led to the tinding of tht: J»ody and
the discovery of the foul play attending the French-
man's death. The settlers were aroused. Forming
themsolvos into a couunittce of vigilance, they ar-

;«

!i!.

i 1

:«

'■'i

[.. (/■-

69fl rOPULAR TmT^UXALR OF UTAH AND XKVADA.

nstt'd Tlioriinsfton, his acooinjilicc liavinnc escaped;
then eleetini^ oilicers and organi/iii;^' a trihiiiud, llicy
tried the jd'isoiier, convicted him of nnirder, and sen-
tenced liim to T»o lian|njed. Unlucky ]>ill.

^[eanwhile tlie A^i<j;ilance Coinniittee earnestly de-
si rt^l to secure Edwards, and most villainously did they
undertake its accomplishment. The man Thorrint;-
ton had a son, a bright, I'rank, honest lad of sixteen
years, who little know how bad his father was. It
was thought that he, as well as his lather, knew where
Edwards lay concealed, and that bv promising the bov
his father's life the other felon nn'ght likewise he
ln'ought to justice. It was a hazardous undertaking;
]']dwards was a powerful, well armed, desperate man:
even settlers feared to attack him in his rc^treat, nnd
the boy was not only to discovei' to tliem tlie criminal,
but to bring him out and lead him into a trap wlicrc
they could catch him. That they were a covvardly set
I do not <l(!ny; but that was not tlH> extent oi' their
baseness. It was a desperate undertaking; Ivhvards
Avas almost sure to suspect treachery, and that sus-
picion would cost the l)oy his life, for the man, already
doomed, would not hesitate a moment to slay one wliu
kncAv and woukl divulge his liiding-[)lace, JJut what
would not a noble, high-spirited lad do to save a
father's life, a father unjustly condemned, as the bov
was made to believe, and for another's crime?

At night, alone, behind the mountains which rise
west of (jlenoa, young Thorrlngton went to a secluded
canon M'hero the murderer lay concealed. Edwai-ds
did not know that Thorrington had been cai)tured,
and this fact the boy kept carefully to himself Me
said his father, hotly hunted, desired to sec him i\\ a
certain house to concert measures for the safety of

*■'

both. From the first, Edwards seemed to feel that ;:!l
Avas not right; whether it was the boy's too eagi'
manner, whose father's fate one unweighed word <»!'
his might sadly mar, or whatsoever it was, then; np-
peared to Edwards an air of unreality about it that

INFAMOUS MKASUKKS.

507

made liini licsitatc. At lirst lie llatly rcliiscd to <;•(>;
said that cacli could take; bettt.-r care of hiiiiscH' a|tiiit
iVoia tlu! other; that tiiei-e was iiothiu'L'- to be juaiiifd
ill \)v'u\<f toi;cither, and iiuieh to lose. IJtit \vh(;ii tin;
boy calmed, and, made' discreet bt'yoiid his y»'ars by
the burden of a lather's life, reasoned with Iiim, bc^'^cd
liim at least to see his f;ither, assuriiii^ him that iioth-
in<4' ill could come of it, he linally yiehh^l, at the samt!
time saying to the boy if he played him false his lift!
should surely be forfeit. Concealed in a herdsman's
hut ne:ir the forks of Carson Ivivei-, on a lonely riuieho
owiu'd by Thorrinujton, the ]>ai'ty of settlers awaited
the nnnxh-'rer, and thitlun- fi'om his covert Ww. boy
conducti'd him. It was lono- jil'ter midniL^ht when
they drew near the place, Jvlwards advancini^ alon;^-
cautiouslv with his I'un raised, and other ;irms in
readiness, v.atcirniL;' narrowly every movi'inent of the
boy, who marched silently bi'fore him. (Jn reacliiuL;'
the house he beekoned young Thorringtou back, and
stepping to the dooi' listened attentively for a moment,
then cautiously oixmumI it. Dai'Iaiess and death-silence
were within; but this was nothing strange, as Thor-
iiii<»ton would hardiv dare to burn a. linht in one of
liis own houses, even in this lonely distant one, v/heii
iustico was so lioundin«jf him. Me would eiitei-; lu!
was not afiaid. Scarcely had his foot crossed tiie
threshold when thud! a powerful blow from an unseen
liand I'elled him to tlu' lloor, and the vi^'ilants v^ere
upon him. Bound by his captors, he was taken before
the same tribunal that doomed to death Thorrington,
and tliere in like maimer was tried and found guilty.
It was almost always a question in a new community
how the lirst death-sentence sliould be carried into
eirect. Simj)le-minded Vv'ell meaning settlers are loath
to turn hangmen; nevertheless necessity often im[)oses
unwelcome bui'dens. In this instance there was much
• liversity of o[)inion on the subject. Some were in
favor of iinding, if possible, a shadow of law and there
laying the condennied; others thought that the pronii:3U

rorULAR TRIBUXALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

nivon to the l)(»y sliould Ix' strictly obsorvtxl; otlu-rs
wrro ill favor of suiuiiiai-y and imincdiatc ('xocutioii.
Tlu'se last outiuiiiilu'ri'd the lost; and at Clear Creek
Haiieho, witji a coolness and coiirai^t! worthy a hettcr
eaiisi', tilt! two men met their liite. JJiit what shall
wo say of those conscienceless men who, to accomplish
their purpose, so ci'Uelly played uj)oii the most sacred
atl'i.'ctions ^ J*oorl>oy! what teach in t^s would so make
him a child of hell as the treacheries of these; sell-
constituted examples of i^ood citizenship. For myself,
I would almost as lief have th(; fathers sin upon my
soul as this vile meanness of the son's deceivers.

Prior to I8r»2 (^arson ValhiV had for souie time
served as a hidin!4'-j)lac(; for stock stolen in California.
K(!mote and ))raeiically inaccessible to sufferers hy
these depredations, it atl'ordi'd a safe retreat. After
recruitinn' in this valh^y, tlie stock was driveu to Utah
or sold to emiu;M-ants. l"'rom cattle -stealing' to tin-
rol)l)in_n" of emigrant trains and oNcrland staj^jes v.'a>
hut a step. Cjli'a«lually the valleys round Carson Cit;
v.'ero occupied hy res|)ectal)le settlei-s, who retj;'ar«le'
these outrages with disfavor. lUit so strong at that
time was fjie impure element, that out of this action
of the.i'eformers grew numhei'less factions, which ke|i1
tliosL' valleys iu constant turmoil, often attended l)y
])ersonal encounters and hloody party strifes. Thougli
the a(;tiou of the A'^igilancc; (Jommittee, aii absolute
necessity in itself, was [»roductive of t!ie greatest good.
active in ri'j)rehending ei'iminals, and punishing with
(•oolness, hanging few but banishing uiauy, yet there
Were there, as iu California, those who o[)posed it,
some from ])riuci[»le, sonu; IVom petty pride, but I'ar
more from |)ersonal and s(;llish interest. An anti
vigilaiure oi* law and (')rder party was foruied, which
carried the issue into politics, and did almost as uuidi
towanl retarding the })rogress of settlement and cloud-
ing the prosperity of the country as the malefactors
themselves.

Ar.oi'T TAnr^oN riTv.

r.\Y)

At Lane and Tolnison's ranclio.AValkcr T^ivcr, soiik'
i'uuv in the winter of IHa.V-d, .lini, an Indian hoy
raised from inlancy on llic place, killed .lohnscn l)e-
<'ans(( lie llireati'iied to whip him if Ik^ whipped the
sliee[>. 'I'he hoy, when he saw what- he had done,
nionnted a hors(! and lied. Lane with a party st;i fled
in j)ni'snit, eauj^ht. the hoy in Sierra A'alley, and hani^i'd
hiiM at ( 'aison Kiver, near liiid Station.

At Williams Station, sixty miles helow CJenoa, in
]\lay IHOO thei'e was an <»nthreak of the natives, pro-
voked hy i;ross ontra^cs on the ]»ai't of the snperior
race, in which I'onr white men lost their lives. It aj)-
peai's that tho ai-hiti-aiy method of redressing- injmies
is not aj)[»lical)le to savaiL^es as to civili/ed men. ^\'llen
the red man suH'ers wroni^' he nuist j^'o to his !.;i'e;it
lather at WashinLjton and there lod^c; his coni|>!aint,
hut he must not lift a liuLfer, when attacked, in sell-
<lelence. It is a j»recetlent too <lan'jjerous lor Indian
in(hi];4'ence. Should one dare to <1(» s(t, white men ai*e
Justilied in exterminatini;' the trihe. It was somewhat,
so ill this instance. Certain oi'tlie more humane set-
tlers ])roj)ose(l to visit the outi'a'^'i-d trihes, to deiiiaad
iVom their chiefs the indisiduals out ra^cd, and to Iiaii;^'
them, lor it was these; who ]iad conimittesl the ciiiae
of retaliati;>ii, which j)rivileL;'e helon ;(.'d only i > des-
jieradoes white; ot';;kin howewr hlack of heart. This
surc^ly was i)unislinu;nt eiiouuh lor these duskv \ I-'il-
ants, one would thiidi; hut so did not tho silver-seek-
ers. J^'illed with ])itchy wj'ath, they rose and threw
tliemselves upon these naked elefeutU'rs of their lire-
sides, and a most unholy and umiecessaiy ilwrv.
months' war was tlu' cousefjueiice.

]\ridsummer I MOO saw much mischief afloat in and
.'!i-oun<l Carson City. With a, scattei'ed population
of say seven hundi'ed, thei'e were within a jxiiod <if
six weeks no less than live murders repoited. Add
to these numherless assaults, shoot in, ^''s, cuttiii;4s, and
heatings, an<l tho measure of hi'utality is well filled.
In the absence of theatricals, and of the more j-elined

i '{:

h -l

It-

600

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

representations of life and character, the inhabitants
fell back upon their native resources and acted their
own tragedies. In the absence of piano, flute, and
guitar, mingling with the many-voiced harmonies
of nature, the silver-toned l)rooks, and the concert of
birds, were the pistol's gentle click and sharp report,
and the shrill laughter or more passionate cries of
ragcful men.

So remarkable during thi:^ carnival of violence was
a moment of quiet that people and the presi^ all noticed
it. Saj's the Territorial Enterprise of the IGth of
June 18G0:

"It is noticeable tliat for the last week we have not bad a rnurdcr or
shooting scrape in our city, while within the same porioil several desperate
ami (lisrcputiiblo eliaracters have quietly slipped off to California. On ^Monday
last Jud;^o Cradlubaugli, United States judge for Utali, opened his court; and
there arc those having causality largely developed who think they can detect
in this scries of events the relation of cause and effect. "

A singular case occurred at Carson Citv in Juno
1 8 GO. A German couple, ^Ir and Mrs Hesse, charged
one ^Manuel, a Mexican, with having attempted to
break into their house and take their lives. Manurl
was arrested and examined before Judge Cr-adlebauii-h,
who held him to answer before the ])roper court.
Durinii: the examinatioii the woman swore that the
^Mexican had made improper proposals to her. How-
ever this may have been, it was generally believed
that the woman was as bad as the man. Yet when
immediately upon the close of the examination Mis
Ilesse drew from under her sliawl a cocked pistol,
and placing it against the head of the prisoner fired,
causing his instant death, neither judge, slieriff, nor the
people made any attempt to arrest her, but permitted
lier to return to her home in peace, as if she had com-
mitted a meritorious act.

In INIarch 1860 the ranchmen of Carson Valley met
at Genoa and made pledges of mutual protection.
Forebodings of disquiet seemed present in the minds
of all. The unsettled titles both to mining and to

VmOIXIA CITY.

601

ants
:heir
and
onics
vt of
;port,
es of

c was
^ticctl
;tli of

Airtlcr or
Acspcrato
1 MoiKlay
ourt; ami
;an detect

[1 Juno

•liargc'.l

tod to

Mauiul

ibau;,5l»,

court,
lat tlio

IIov.-
cliovod
t wliou
)u Mrs

pistol,
i:Y firod,

nor tlio
Irniittod

,d cou\-

llcy mi't

Itoctioii.

t minds

and to

farming lands wore the cause of many disputes and
bloody affrays; add to this the absence of competent
courts and the presence of the very worst clement
from California and elsewhere, and the outlook for
social order was not very encouraijinu:. If the oram-
biers and desperadoes would conline their shootings
and cuttings to their own class no one would complain,
but it is contrary to nature for beasts of the same
species to prey on each other. Notwithstanding all
})rognostications, prosperity attended the development
of the natural wealth of the territory. j\Iost luckily
Virginia City escaped for nearly three years those
sweeping conflagrations which with their crushing in-
fluences had so often lai<l young San Francisco in
ashes. Several attempts at incendiarism were dis-
covered both before and after the great (ire which
occurred at Virginia City about the 1st of Septendjor
18G3, but this lire, it was generally conceded, was the
result of accident. At tliis time where four 3'ears
before there was a camp amidst the sagebrush con-
sisting of two rude stone houses, and six or eight
tents and brush shanties, occupied by a score or two
of straggling adventurers, there were now within an
area of three miles square twenty thousand inhabi-
tants, with houses, roails, mills, gas and water works,
witli schools, churches, theatres, and all the concom-
itants of civilization. But all tliis time the progress
and prosperity of Washoe, as Nevada was then
]>opularly called, was material rather than moral. Of
all places on the jilanet, it was then tlio paradise
of evil-doers, as Califoi-nia had been in her day. From
the frequency of assaults, assassinations, and robber-
ies, toijether with the many minor misdemeanors and
suicides, one would think that Washoe Valley had
become the world's nior;d cess[)ool, the receptacle of
prison oflal from every (juarter. Likewise there as-
send)led were multitudes of political vagrants and
pcttilbggers such as wait on rascality and derive their
sustenance from vagabondage, whose presence in the

602

POPULAR TRIEUXALS OF VTAII AND NEVADA.

now more refined atmosphere of public sentiment in
California was not tolerated as formerly. Bloated
dissipation sunned itself upon the street-cdrners, and
lust and lewdness flaunted their gay attire along the
thoroughfares. Mingling with the whiskey- stained
visages of the dominant race were the black and
yellow-skinned element found in every important town
upon the Pacific coast; and seasoning the mass with
infernal relish was woman of every shade of influence,
from distraught wives seeking release from unwelcome
bonds, and g.ass-widows panting for new alliances, to
the openly ^jrofanc and gaudily decked professional.
"In fact," says one, "Washoe is now to Californij*
what the latter was at one time to all the world
beside — a receptacle for the vagrant, the vicious, and
the unfortunate, who hasten to find in the excitements
and social license incident to frontier life a condition
congenial to their perturbed spirits and blasted hopes;
and it may be, if indeed there is not reason to believe
it will happen, that this country, this coming state of
Washoe, when it shall have had the age of her sister
California, will be able to boast as nmch public intel-
ligence and virtue, and to make as fair an historic
record as she."

Tlie settlers in Washoe Valley during the winter
of 18G3-4 felt the necessity of banding and organ-
izing for mutual protection against 'land-jumpers' or
squatters on land previously claimed.

Aurora had its Citizens' Protective Union, which
assumed the form of a military organization. On tin;
9th of February 18G4, at twelve o'clock, noon, tho
members formed in line, marched to the county jail,
and taking thence four prisoners, charged with tho
murder of W. R. Johnson a week })revi()us, mounted
them upon a scalTold erected in front of Armory Hall.
The military, who were one with the Citizens' Pr*'-
tective Union, held the town, and though there w.is
a great concourse of people, the strictest order was
preserved. The doomed were then permitted to spoaI<.

THE TOWN OF AURORA.

603

nt in
oatetl
i, and
ig the
:ainecl
j^ and
[, town
s with
uencG,
Lslcomo

lCCS, tt)

isionul.

lifornii'

I worhl

us, and

;ements

)ndition

I hopes;

, bchevc

state of

lor sister
ic intcl-
histoiic

[3 winter

organ-

ipcrs' or

which
On til'".
loon, tlio
mty jail,
kvith tht!
Iinovuiti'il
])ry Hull.

Mis' PV-

Ihcre was

[•der was

|to spoaA.

The first, named Buckley, assured his hearers that he
and one of the others, I)aly, alone were guilty ; that
McDowell and Masterson, standing there with them,
were wholly innocent of the crime. Daly confirmed
what Buckley liad said. Johnson had killed Daly's
partner, and Daly only regretted that there was but
one Johnson to kill in return. Masterson simply as-
serted his innocence. McDowell raved, called heaven
to witness his imiocence, and warned the people not to
do murder by taking his life. He appeared under the
intiuence of liquor, and Daly was, if anything, worse.
Just before McDowell was pinioned he bade good-by
to all, and then suddenly drawing a derringer and
pointing it at his breast he pulled the trigger; l)ut it
snapped without exploding, when he dashed it to the
ground with a curse. Buckley was cool, brave, respoct-
ful, and temperate. In neither speech nor demeanor
did he manifest the slightest fear. About half-past
one tlie four men were placed in positicm, their liands
tied and eyes bandaged; the signal-gun was then lireil,
and earth with its materiality sank beneath four dis-
embodied souls.

It appears that this rich and famous mining dis-
trict was then infested with desperadoes, who, like
noxious vermin, filled the settlements and made r.uik
the air by their jiresence. For nearly two years a,
reign of terror had existed, until with the incorpora-
tion of the town of Aurora tlie evil elements organized
and entered politics. Filling the oflSces with their
fellows, they had prostituted the law to their own
base purposes. The numerous gambling-houses Mere
crowtled night and day, and bullets and bowie-knives
were constantly opening fresh channels for the flow of
1 flood. The quiet towns-people were almost afraid to
appear upon the streets; miners would hurriedly
transact tlieir business and hasten away while thev
Mere able. Pending the decision of the courts in suits
involving title, mining companies had held possession
of their claims b}- the assistance of hired ruffians.

604

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

Life had hung upon a popular will as passionate and
capricious as that ot" the Roman aniphitheati-o, where
a gladiator's late was decided by the spectators, wlio,
if they desired he should live, held their thumbs
down, and if they wished him to be slain, pointed tlicir
thund)s u])ward.

Upon the election of a new marshal adverse to the
reign of the roughs, the latter had determined to
strike a signal blow; and the murder of Johnson, an
orderly and respected gentleman, whose only olfence
was a conscientious discharge of duty, was perpetratetl.
Tlien followed the execution of the four rulhans already
mentioned.

The following reasons why Johnson was killed are
given by a Carson co-respondent of the Virginia City
ilnion:

"It will l)c recollected that al)out a year ngo a man iiaiiicil Scars, while
passing on foot by Johnson Station, mounted a Jionie sfamding sadilled at the
<loor and rode ufl" witli him. 'J'liis waa at ^\'right'ii bridge, on the Mcst fork
of Walker Kiver. 'J'he hor.se belonged to a neighbor of .lohnson, a poor man,
who deplored his loss severely. A young man named llodgers, stopi)ing at the
station, mountetl another animal and went in pur.iuit of the thief, aiul over-
h.ui'.in,;; him at the Sweetwater. ealle<l on him to halt, threatening, if he did
not, to lii'c on him. Sears, however, instead of stojiping, attempted to mak(^
good his escape, when llodgers fired and killed him. Th. ■ excuse of llodgei's
Wius that ho feared Sears might shoot him if he came to eliK-.e quarters, and
that he v.duld get oil with the animal if he did not. The killin;,' might he
regarded in part as the result of chance, seeing that it wa.s eilected with a ])i.<tol
and the ]iartie8 were a long way from each other. After the killing Uodgers
proceeded at once to Carson and surrendered himself U> the authoritii s, hacl
an examination, anil was disehar;ed. Ho was udvLsed, however, to leave the
jilai'e, as .Tohn Daly had threatened to kill him. Sears having lieen a frieml or
companion of the latter. Ivo<lgers thereujion eame back to .Johnson's. A
short time aflei-, Daly and Jack McDowell, «/('«.•< 'J'hree- lingered .faek, came to
.lohnson's and <lemaniled to know where Rodgers was, as they wished to ai-
rest him. .lohnsoii refused to inform them, know in;,' that thi'y woidd iiill liiiu
if lliey got him in their jiossession. Ite told them, however, that he knew
wheri' Rodgers was, and that he would inform them if they came autlioii;'.ed
with a jirojic 1- warrant for his arrest. Knowing that they eouhl not jiroemv
tliis, they left in a rage, and have frequently since been known to tiu'eatta
Johnson foi- the part lie took in befriending Ifodgers. In order to alhiy sus-
picion, however, they let the aliiiir rest for a whole year; nor docs it appcr
that John.^on waa nppri.scd of their purpose or aware of the throats they h;:d
made. The diy prior to the nuirdcr Johnson, it ap^iears, went to Aurora fi^r

CAPTURE OF BUCKLEY.

G05

are

9, -vvhilo
;l at the
est fork
Ml' iiiiiu,
i;^ at till!
11(1 DVUl-

f ho .li.l
to iiiaki^

iTH, ami
iii.-ilit 111'
la pi.'t"!

ti. H, haa
• avi' tin'
iVii'ial 111'
,(m";<. -^
|, caiiH' t'l
oil to ai-
Uill liiiii
hi' kiu'W
ithoi-i/.i'i
]irocuv<'
1 throat t!i
iiUay HU-

lit ai'l"''''
Ithcy ha.l

luvov'ii. £"^'

the purpose of diaposing of a lot of potatoes, when tliis gang at once set their
wits to work to phm liis death in a manner that wouUl be k'ast likely to draw
suspicion on themselves. To this end one of tiieir numhcr, aflecting a great
friendship for Johnson, induced him to take a walk witli him, and linally to
visit several places about town, in which manner, having kept him up till a
late hour, he finally decoyed him into a somewhat obscure locality, wliere,
secreted behind a wood-pile, his companions lay in wait to despateli tiieir nii-
susjtecting victim. Arrived at the spot agreed on, Buckley fellod Johnson by
a blow over the head with a pistol. John Daley then shot him tlirou^di the
lioail, when a third one of tlie party, but whether McDowell, or Masterson, or
some other one of the gang, is not known, cut his throat. His pockets having
been rifled, he was left lying on the spot where he fell. Tlie assassins then
S'.'parated, Daly going to a saloon near by, where he shortly after told those
present, with affected nonchalance, that there was a man lying in the street
(lead a little way off, designating tiic spot. These parties at once suspected
tiiat Daly was himself the murderer, or knew something of the matter, and
kocpin r their eye on him, soon after procured his arrest. A follow known as
Italian Jim, who it seems overheard the nmrder plainied, or was in some way
in'ivy to it, becoming ahirmcd, took the stage early in the morning and K ft
in the direction of Carson. Oflicer I'ine having been dospatohed, overtook
the .stage at Wellington's, on the West Walk'!r, and conducted him Itaok.
.lim, in order to save himself, made a confession, revealing who wore tlie
guilty iiarties and the manner in which the diabolical crime was connuitted.
Corroborating evidence having been obtained, the nuirdor was fastoiiod upon
these men beyond any doubt, to sav nothing of the confessions of Buckley
and Daly."

The Esmeralda Star ffivcs the followiiii; account of
luurdcrer Buckley's capture:

"]?uckley fled from the town on Wednesday, the day after the murtur.
Vai.ior, Oilman, and Fagan had also fled on hoi-scljack and gone, as supposed,
wliich afterward proved to be correct, to the AiIoIm; Meadows. Various
I inr.ors were flying through the town that Buckley was hid in some one of the
many hundreds of tunnels and sliafts on I.^ist Chance Hill. A thorough search
V. as made everywhere to find him, but it all proved to l>e a fruitless task. On
IViday evening ShorilF Francis returned to town with Parker, (Jilman, and
I'av'.'in, who were taken at the Adolx! Meadows; from them information was
j:ivoii that a man answering the description of Buckley had passed .Mackay's
raiioho on foot, which is nbdut twelve miles from this jilace; ho had Kto|ipi'd to
^;i't a drink of water, but wliou he saw Parker and his companions lidiiig up
lio secreted himself, supjiosing them to bo a party sent in pursuit of hii.i. .\s
sociu as they had left he started for Memo Lake, and from thence was iutoMil-
iii;; to make his way f)ver the mountains tlie liest way lu; could. Tin' .■-Ik rill'.
hearing no further tidings of him, left on Saturdaj' moniing for tlie Adobe
Mc.mIows, determined if he did not find him tluu-e he would go on down t >
<l\veii:!ville, wiiitliei- he supjiosed ho had lied. Captain Tool also \\ciit out,
taking with him Mr Augustus Lidcc and Joim Burns, and went over toward

CC6

rorULAR TRIBUN.iLS OF UTAH AND NEVADA,

Mono Lake, haviny started one day ahead of Francis. They hunted dili-
4,'ently, riding entirely round Mono Lako on a veiy dark niglit, and a portion
of the time without any food. The weather waa piercing colil, and they
came near freezing their ears, hands, and feet. Tliey finally had to stop
and build a lire to wann theni.selve.s bj'. They then mounted their liorses
and hunted a long time during the day for the fugitive, and then returnetl
to town.

" On Monday moniing Deputy-sherilf Teel felt eonfident he couhl be found,
provided Teel had enough men to assist him; ami on Monday luat, at about
eleven o'clock in the forenoon, ho started out for Mono Lake with Messrs
]^ke, Shreves, Dekay, Patterson, Jackson, Staatz, and Joseph lUcluirdson, iii
company. When they arrived at Mono Lake, on the northt-rn side Captain
Teel divi.'.ad his forces into two parties, lie sent Shreves, Jack;.on, Patter-
son, and Dekay around the oast end, and took wiili him Richardson, Lake,
and Stuatz to go around the west end of the lake, and all would arrive at Le
Vining's old rancho within about fifteen minutes of each other. The party that
went around the east end of the lake rode very fast until they came to Riish
Creek, which empties into the lake ; they daslied in across the ei-eek and came
to Le \'ining's old lioutie. The door was open, and the party demantled of the
men who were there if they had seen anything of Buckle}', and one of tiiem
replied, 'lie is not here.' The dog belonging to the house kept up a foolish
barking, and seemed to be watching something in the .sagebrush, and would
occasionally make a dash toward it. This attracted the attention of .lack-
son, and he thought he saw something moving ia the siigebrush, and he also
tliought there was a lit'de chip or sometlnng tlirown toward tlic dog to drive
him away, lb; brouglit his gun to his shoulder and said, 'Patterson, I've got
something; let us see what it is.' The rest of them brought their guns to
their shoulders and covered the object also, wliile Patterson went on foot
toward it, and when he had got within a few feet of it Buckley rose to iiis
feet and said, ' Boys, you have got me this time,' and immediately surren-
dei-ed. They brought him to the house, and in about fifteen minutes Deputy-
sherilF Teel arrived with his party, they having dismounted a little way oil'
in order to come in on foot ard surround the house, expecting to take him
that way.

"Remounting their horses, the party all rotle back together, passing by the
house of Mr Boomer»iiine, who did not expect them until nioiniug, and had
niiide every pri'pai'ation to greet them with a line breakfast of wild <lucks
juid geese, and every hospitality he coidd bestow, but Teel's party arrived
too soon for him ; but it was not lost, for SherifT Francis and party an-iving
at the hour set made it all right. Teel and his party pushed on toward
home, aiul some of their horses gave out, but as a good providence would
have it, as tliey were trudging their way along slowly in the middle of tlu; nig' *
a band of horses came up to them; one of tho party said 'Whoa!' and they
stopped and allowed four of themselves to be saddled and bridled without
any difficulty, and the party tlius being mounted on fresh hor.ses they were
cnal)led to reach home a1>out five o'clock in the morning of Thursday with
their jirisoner, who was at onco put into the county jail.

" Buckley iufonncd them that when Teel and his party were out the

DEVII

607

(ViU-
irtioH

they
1 stop
lorsea
urncil

Eouinl,
al)out
Messrs
son, i'.i
'aptiiin
I'atter-
, Laki--,
\! at Lii
vty that
to Rush
ud came
111 of the
of theiu
a f(K)Ush
[ul wouM
of Jack-
A he also
[f to ihivi:
I, I've got
,■ guns to
It on foot
,se U> his
|ly surrMi-

Deputy
|le way olV

take him

linjj l)y the
aiul had
l-iM (Uicks
ly ani^'''^
ly aiTiviu:-;
],n toward
luce would
Iftheiii^''"
and they
Id without
Ithey wi'VL'
kday with

L out the

first time, during the niglit he saw their fire and could hear them talk, and
when they mounted their horses ngain they camo on so fast that tiicj' over-
took him, and that lie laid down in the sugehnisli and came very near being
stepped on l)y Mr Lake's horse. He had tnivelled around the lake several
times, which is about thirty-five miles in circumference, and lindiu',' liimsclf
closely pursued, he struck out into the open wild sagebrush plain fur tiio
Adobe Meadows. On Hearing this place ho got a glimpse of Slieriil I'rancis
and jinsne, and started back again over this long distance, through tliia wild
sagebrusli deaert, to the alkaline waters of Mono Lake again, and wandcreil
around its shores, hiding in the sagebrusli until almost exhausted. His ca:)-
tui'o soon followed in the manner aliove sfcited, and he was brought to town,
declaring that \w would rather be hanged than sufTer aa he liad for those hist
three or four days and niglits from Imngcr and cold; and being worn com-
jilctely out, ho found that escape was impossible, and having suffered so nnich,
(juietly submitted to his fate, which explains to a groat degree the cause of liia
cheerfulness and composure when ou the scaffold."

Tlio o-ovornor, on entering Aurora sliortly nfter-
v/ard to inquire into this arbitrary ntatc of" afthin>,
.saw tlic grim framework where the eulprits luul been
executetl with the lour fatal ropes still dangling from
the cross-beam, and turning to the sherilf exclaimed,
"Have that devilish 'machinery immediately removed!"
Tlie sheriff hesitated, fearing the power behind the
throne; but when the governor threatened to do it
himself if he did not, the sheriff mustered the requisite
courage and had the gallows taken down. The Au-
rora Tiincs of tlie 4th of March shows that notwith-
standing the return of peace secured by the j>eo})le's
organi;iatit)n, there were those who were restless for
them to disband, knowing that to practise the arts
of their profession while the watchful eye was on them
M'as not safe. Says that journal:

"Tho following petition is being circulated througli town for signaturi'S.
Last evening we saw one list containing over fifty names. Tho movement
sliows t!i;it there is an opposition to tlie ('itizens' Safety Committee in our
midst, to wliich its jirotracted session is giving strengtii. We liave no desire
to sec Aurora declared in a state of insurrection ; no wish to ha"o troops sent
here. As set forth yestenhiy, the effect would be most injurious t<> the in-
terests of the city. If the committee wouhl get through witli tiieii- l)usim'ss
and disband at once, the opposition now manifesting itself would fall to tho
ground and amount to nothing. The danger of a bloody collision l)ct\vei a
tho oLiceid of tho law uud tho committee, which Ihroatcua hourly to como

COS

POPULAR TRIBUXALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

alwut, is by no means a pleasant subject to contemplate.

as follows :

The petition rcatlg

, I!

"V'o hh Excellenfji James W. Nije,fiov<>mnrnfthe Tcrritorijof Kcxada, Carmn:

"Your petitioners, residents and citizens of Aurora, Esmeralda County.
Territory of Nevada, would most respectfully represent: That there is now
an nnncd organization in our midst, acting in open defiance of the Liw jind
constituted authorities; tliat this organization, without even the pretence of
legal ri'.'ht, is continuing to arrest citizens and residents among us. and com-
pelling them, by an overwhelming force, to leave and abandon a place where
they have seen fit to come and live. These proceedings arc being carried on
by an armed multitude, overpowering the legally constituted officers, upon
the pi-ctext of charges that are preferred in secret against parties proteitting
tlicir entire innocence, and who arc denied the opportunity of defence, of con-
fronting their accusers, or even of knowing who they are.

"Within a very few hours one of these orders to leave has been issued and
enforced by this organization at the imminent peril of the safety of our town,
and the lives of the officers of the law and a large nundier of citi:;cn3 called t )
their aid, but rendered jiowerlcss from the fact that all the public arms are in
the hands of the organization referrctl to.

"But now, in ad<lition to all this, another blow is levelled at every prin-
ciple of law and sentimcTit of justice in the arrest of our fellow-citi;:en .Tolm
M. Prendegrast, who has come inidcr the ban of this organization, falsely
styled the People's Safety Committee. This man we have known long. lie
is an old resident and a large property-owner in this place, and baa held ami
now holds upon our stafT of police a position which ho has ever filled with
fidelity and sobriety. Within the last twenty-four hours, in the niid<lle of
the night, this man has been arrested, without waiTant, without knowi;ig for
what cause, has been held in close custody, a jnock inver.tigation rcpcirteil t>
have been held, and without the aid of counsel or frieutks or the privilew of
calling witnesses in his defence, ho is ordered to leave the place which ho bus
made his home, and w-here, by bis industry, lie has accumulated a h;;nd:;oiiie
property, and obtained the respect, hitherto at least, of the whole connnunity.

"We, therefore, your petitioners, earnestly urge upon your excellency to
adopt some measures by which our society may be hebl and protected witliia
the law, the imminent danger of a disastrous outbreak and bloodshed be
avoided, and the rights of all be protected and secursd.

"And j'our petitioners will ever pray, etc.

"Aurora, March 3, ISG4."

The errand jury, reporting a month later, thouglit
differently. They say:

" Having considered the homogeneous character of our population, isolat'il
as wc are and removed from the influences of older communities, and the
great difliculty and expense of procuring witnesses, which deter pcrsoii^
of limited means from prosecuting and bringing to justice the perpctrat<irs nt
crime, and the fact that within the last three years some twenty-seven of or.r
citizens have come to their death by the hand of violence, and the delays ai:d

AUllOr^ AFFAIRS.

600

3a;l9

•son :
inty.

now
/ mill
»cc of

com-
wlioro
icil oil
, upon
Dfstiii';
of cou-

letl ami

V town,
iA\vi\ t )
13 arc ill

;ry rvin-
:en Jd'.i'i

1, i-aW'-y

m'S- "^'
lielil iiu<l
llk-.l wiUi
.ir.adle .;!
nviiv; fiiv

ivili'L''-' *''"
I ho li:'S

i;.uil;ou>i:

inumi'^y.

r.ency t;)

il witln-.i

nldhcd lie

llOUgV't

, isolat-'il
and thf
Ir persni!^
Itrators "f
len of onr
Llays as- 1

inefficiency, and wc believe also the indifference of those who were the sworn
guardians and ministers of the law, and the unnecessary postponement of im-
portant trials, whereby many notorious villains have gono unpunished, we
are led to believe that the membera of the vigilance association have been gov-
erned by a feelijig of opposition to the manner in which the law haii been ad-
ministered rather than by any disregard of the law itself or of its ofticcrs."

Says the San Andres Register of the 27th of Feb-
ruary 1864:

' ' Since the organization of the Vigilance Coimviittce at Aurora there has
been a general skedaddling of murderers, gamblers, and thieves from that
locality. It seems tliat a regular system has been atlopted by this class of
gentry for the murder of persons who might become obnoxious to them,
from any cause, and great concert of action existed when they marked each
ouo for blaughter. A man named Finley, who was interested in several
Valuable mines, was thought by them to have too good a thing, and his death
1 (Solved on ; ascertaining which, ho quietly sold out and left for the east.
1 »r Mitchel was also doomed, because ho was a most important witness in the
J'oud and Del Norte suit, and saved his lifo by the greatest watchfulness.
Julmson was killed for his money."

The Stockton Tndejjendent, noticing the refusal of
the grand jury of Lincohi County, Nevada, to indict
Ijarney Hood for kilhng Thomas Coleman at Pioche,
nives the following hist(jry of some luffians with whom
Coleman was associated:

"In 1SG7 Edward Lloyd shot and killed a teamster named Thornton at
Oioville. iVfter two or three trials he was sentenced to ten years in the
btate-prison, but through some decision of the supreme court finally escaped.
1 lu and his two brothers, George and Thomas Lloyd, kept the Mountaineer
saloon in Sacramento in 18G1-2. In the last named year, if wo are not mis-
taken, the great fight occurred at the foot of K street between the steamboat
tuuuers. Both drew pistols and commenced firing simultaneously. Lloyd
was reenforced by his brother George, his cousin Patsey Callahan, and Me-
Alpinc, who has since earned a wide reputation as a prize-fighter. Coleman
was supported by Joe McGcc and F. N. Smith. The Lloyd party was anncd
villi but one pistol and one knife. McGee stood a short distance off and fired
with a revolver, wounding George Lloyd in the right shoulder and McAlpine
in the Avrist. In the heat of the conflict Smith approached Edward Lloyd
from the rear and shot him, killing him instantly. Smith remained in the
county jail about six months, when the grand jury ignored the charge against
him. George Lloyd had by that time recovered. Within fifteen minutes of
the time Smith was discharged, George Lloyd shot and killed him, inflicting
four bullet- wounds. Lloyd was tried several times, and finally acquitteu.
A year or two later, Patsey Callahan was stabbed and killed at the Bank
Pop. Tbuj., Vol. I. 39

nio

POPULAR '] RIIJUXALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

Kxchange in Siicranicnto Ijy Tliomas Sherman. George Lloyd went to Nevada
and Thomas Lloyd to Idalio. While in Sacramento George Lloyd had a
rough-and-tumble fight with Johnny Daly, which was the subject of consid
crablo talk among their friendy. The silver excitement took over to the
vicinity of Aurora, George Lloyd, Joimny Daly, Jimmy Sears, and the othei
Thomas Coleman, who was a brother-in-lav/ of the Lloyd's, but who had
nothing to do with the steamboat Imsiness. Scars soon afterward, while
ti'avelling on foot on the Aurora road, jumped on a horse in front of .Johnson's
hotel and rode olF. He was pursued, shot, and killed.

"A short time afterward Daly and Coleman engaged in a bar-room figlit
with George Lloyd concerning mining claims, the respective parties h.aviuj,'
been retained as fightei'S by the conflicting claimants. Several shots were
iired and Lloyd was killed. It was generally believed that the fatal shot was
lired by Ins brother-in-law Coleman. Soon after this occurrence Johnson tin;
hotel-keeper visited Aurora and was murdered in the night. The proof was
conclusive that he had been murdered in revenge for the killing of Sears. A
vigilance committee previously organized arrested, tried, convicted, and
hanged Daly and three others for the Johnson murder. The Thomas Coleman
who was recently shot and killed at Pioche by Barney Lloyd is, wo believu,
the brother-in-law of the Lloyds.

"One evening, perhaps in 1SC3, a man whose name we have forgotten,
wliilo in a saloon in Carson was shot and killed. The assassui fired through a
window with a shot-gun and escaped. Suspicion rested on McGee. Precisely
ii year afterward, at the s.amo hour in the evening, McGrce while in the same
saloon was shot through the same window and killed. The same gun was
found on the ground, having been used as on the first occasion. The assassiji
also for a time escaped. Thomas Lloyd returned from Idaho to San Francisco.
About eighteen months ago he shot and killed a man named Tliny at Sevciitli
anil Stevenson stri'i'ts, and is now serving out n ten years' term in the stato-
])rison for the offence. We understand the Coleman who fought the duel
with Mulligan to be the steamboat runner, who still resides in San Francisco.
^Mulligan, while under the inlluencc of delirium tremens at the St Francis Hotel
in San Francisco, resisted the efforts of tlie police to arrest him. .i^i immense
ei'owd gathered around the hotel. Mulligan fired and killed two men in the
crowd, and was himself shot and killed by a policeman., This is indeed a
dark chapter in the criminal record of the coast. The only instance of pun-
ishment by law, in connection with this entire list of crimes, is that of Thoiiuis
Lloyd."

About throe weeks after the execution of tlie
murderers of Johnson, Aurora was agitated by tlu'
threats of Masterson's brother, who on hearing <>f
the hanging came over from Carson City to settle tlu'
rogue's estate. Little attention was paid him until
he began to utter menaces against those who had
«lain his brother. Hearing these, the Union deter-

THE MINE15S' LKAGUK.

Oil

Nevada

1 ha<l a

consiil

P to till'

he other
(vho ha<i
d, whili'
[ohHsoii-*

oom figlit
B8 htvvin;,'
hots w<r>'
I shot was
(hnsou tin:
proof was
Sears. A
icted, anil
IS Coleman
SVC believf,

. forgotten,
d through 11
,. Precisely
in the sanii'
Tio gun w:i-^
The assassin
n Francisi-o.
y at SevcTith
in the atate-
;ht the diKl
u Fraueiscu.
I'runeis Ui'tcl
^Vii imnu'ii>''
|o men in ili''
is indei'il ii
,ncc of run
|at of Thonius

of the
by tlK'
taring "f
settle tho
him "i)til
Iwho lia*^
Ion deter-

mined upon action. The signal -gun was fired; the
sheriff offered Masterson the protection of the jail,
of which hospitality he eagerly availed himself In
less than twent}'^ minutes after the signal -shot four
companies were under arms. The armed guard which
the sheriff had stationed to kee[) the prison were in-
,:'ifficient for its protection. Masterson then agreed
to quit the place instantly if permission should be
given him. This was agreed to by the military, who
escorted him beyond the precincts of the town.

Between the ranchmen and the land -jumpers on
the Truckee River on the night of the 17th of Feb-
ruary 1864 there was a bloody fight, in which one
Ferguson was shot to death and two wounded. The
ranchmen then associated an«l declared war.

A man by the nan»e of Doyle had been killed by
• »ne Lynn, who for the offence was confined at Dayton,
Xevada, for trial. About three o'clock on the morn-
ing of the lOtli of August 1804 a posse of the Dayton
V^igilance Committee entered the apartments of the
sheriff, whom they bound and gagged, and taking the
]<eys they opened the jail, took thence Lynn, who
hegged piteously for his life amidst loud shrieks for as-
sistance, and hanged him in the jail-yard. Tlierc was
little excitement attending the execution, few know-
ing of it except those present until some time after all
was over.

Near the sink of the Carson on the night of the
•ilst of October 1864 one Edward Hale was shot by a
negro, who was soon afterward caught and hanged by
the people.

Besides the several committees of vigilance organ-
ized at different times and places in Nevada, there
were many impromptu tribunals for special cases, as
well as mobs and Indian-fighting companies. An as-
sociation was likewise formed under the denomination
of " The Minors' League," which was not always tem-
perate in its counsel nor beneficial to society in ifes
operations. There is a vast difference in the asso-

613

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

i-Iutiiig of the best element of a community, actuated
l)y no personal ambition and possessing no political
aspirations, banding for the support of social morality
and good order, for the upholding of law and govern-
ment in so far as law and government can sustain
themselves, but never harboring designs of tlieir ovei-
throw — there is a vast aifference, I say, between sucli
(jrganization and the leagues of disaffected laborers,
secret political societies, and the coalescing of lawless
desperation.

James W. Nye, governor, and superintendent oi'
Indian affairs of Nevada, writes from Carson City
September 25, 18G4, to J. P. Usher, secretary of the
interior at Washington, informing him that " for the
last live weeks this territory has been in considerable
turmoil and commotion, owing to apprehended raids
from avowed disloyalists from California and this ter-
ritory on the ))rincipal towns of the territory on tlic
one hand, and riotous and unlawful proceedings of
persons composing wliat is here called the Miners'
League on the other. On two occasions I found it
necessary to order out the military from Fort ChurchiJl
to the towns of Virginia and Carson, to be in readiness
to suppress or })rovent those anticipated troubles. A
force of nearly three hundred cavalry is now on dutv
at Virginia, ready to meet any outbreak of the rioters.
I have also had to form companies of home-guards in
every town in the territory, and arm them to suppress
and subdue unlawful yiolence."

And again five years later we read in the Sacramento
Beeoi' the 30th o'f September 18G9:

"Yesterday aftcnioon about three liuudreJ and fifty members of tlio
Miners' Union at Cold Hill, Nevada, made a raid upon the Chinese laborti-s
on the Virginia and Truekee Railroad. They drove the Chinamen away fmni
their work, but did not attempt any personal violence. The sheriff of t!ie
county and officers were present, and contented themselves with reading tlio
riot act and watching the exploits of the guerillas."

In April 18G7, following the Virginia Trespas.^,
matters stood thus:

"The fracas in the Highbridge saloon, Belmont, on the 18th has In en

THE CASE OF VAIL.

613

latod
itical
rality
vcrn-

istaiii
over-
i sueli
lorcrs,
iwlcss

ent of
1 City
of the
for tlic
Icrable
J raids
his tt'V-

on the
ings of

liners'
[ound it

uirchill

aJincss

us. -^
n dut y

rioters.
ards in

uppress

kmento

lera of the
Ise labovtra
] away ir<>m
feriff of the
teading tbe

111 has been

tli<- moans of impelling the people of that place to the resort which new com-
iiiunitiea ao commonly adopt for security from ruffianism. A vigilance com-
mittee baa been organized and ia now making efforts to overtake those who
took part in the outrage which resulted in the death of Bodrow and aftt i
ward of Digncn. A jail has been constru'^t .d, and two men who imrtieipiitiii
m the abuse of a mining superintendent on the night of the 17th iiavc been
incarcerated, Russell and Bender. Kight mounted men, a patrol appointed liy
the Committee, are traversing the surroundinc country in quest of others
who were engaged in the riot. Great excitement was occasioned by the im-
prisonment of Russell and Bender. Armed men were seen on every hand,
some to resist the nimored hanging, otiiers with tlie determination to stand
by the Committee. "

One Vail, arrested tor the murder of his partner,
Knox, while in custody of the sheriff of Lincjoln
County in July 18G7 on the way to Hiko, was seized
by a company of men, tried before a jury c^f twelve,
<niidenmed, and in an hour and a half thereafter
luinged. Of this affair the same journal of July lJ)th
says:

"We learn from Mr Walsh, who arrived here from Belmont last evening,
that the mail-carrier between Belmont and Pahranagat arrived at the former
place <jn Monday evening, bringing the news of the hanging by the people
oil tlic previous Thursday of S. B. Vail, the alleged murderer of Robert AV.
Knox. Vail, it will be recollected, was arrested a few miles from Austin by
.iii city marshal, W. H. Knerr, on the 10th of .Tune, and delivered to the
custody of Sheriff Matthews of Lincoln County. The prisoner was taken to
Belmont, and while theu steps were taken to prevent his being carried to
Lincoln County, but he was finally delivered to Sheriff Matthews, who suc-
n'cded in taking him to where the foul murder was committed.

"VaU was taken from the sheriff at Logan Springs and carried to Hiko,
tin miles distant, the county seat of Lincoln, where it appears they gave
him a trial after the manner of Judge Lynch. He refused to make any con-
fession of the murder of Knox, asserting that he believed he was in I'reacott,
Arizona. While he persistently denied the murder, he confessed that he was
a horse-thief. He was condemned to bo hanged. A piece of timber was run
from the upper window of a, building, to which a rope was fastened ; a wagon
containing Vail was driven alongside the house; the rope was placed around
liis neck, and at a signal the wagon was drawn away, and in a few minutes
the career of a bad man ended."

In every spot of the Pacific States where precious
metals have been found, thither have flocked like vul-
tures desperate characters, who stirred up strife, ex-
cited turmoil, and caused the honest and industrious

\"Ml

014

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

F-

iniieli anxiety. And this was continued, gradually
growing worse, until they were driven out by the
order-loving element; for the right-minded of every
j»ermanent community are stronger than the evil-
minded. The White Pine district proved no exception
to this rule.

During the winter of 18G8-i) the louglis and out-
laws directe<l their attention chiefly to driving from
tlieir ground those who held possession of mining
claims. So unbearable beeame the evil that the citi-
zens of Hamilton and Treasure City were obliged to
form protective associations.

It was exceedingly^ ilifficult for the miners to sub-
mit to the rulings of courts which wrought injustice
to any of their uumbei-. They loved equity more
than law. The people of Treasure Hill, White Piiic,
had not long been favored with a district judge before
they |>laced their will in determined opposition to his.
One Stanton in August or September 1809 sued and
obtained judgment for certain land which had been
bought and improved by innocent third parties. Of
this land a Mr Fulton had bought a piece and built a
house upon it, at a cost, for land and building, of some
fifteen hundred dollars. Fulton was willing Stanton
should have the land if it belonged to him, but lie
thouijht the house bv rights belonged to himself And
so thought iiis neighbors; for one night forty of them
proceeded in a body to the place, rolled the house
across the street, and placed it upon ground whicli
did not belong to Stanton. The latter was present
with friends; shots were exchanged, but the Fulton
party was the stionger.

On the Ejjfan and White Pine road robberies b( -
came so fre(pient that the inhabitants of that vicinity
on the 27th of September 18G9 ealled a meeting and
organized the "Eg/in Canon Property Protection
Society," by whicli means they hoped to curb tlie
growing evil. .F. Riley and J. O'Dougherty in behiilf
of the people

of Egan submitted tlie

followniir resii

PROPERTY PROTECTION SOCIETY.

Gi:

lutions and rules tor the ujovorniuent of tlio sociotv,
which were adopted :

" Whereas, Tlie discovery of ricli mines of silver in the Wliite Piiie dis-
trict has attracted to eastci'ii Nevachi a hirge population, and among them,
unfortunately, many of the reckless and criminal adventurei-.s wlio float lialnt-
ually from one scene of mining excitement to another, and wlio, when they
find their wild hopes of sudden accpiisiticn disappointed, hetake to theft,
robbery, and murder as a means of supiwrc; an<l whereas, from tiic exjiosed
])Osition of many districts and the sMarsencss of settlements upon the prin-
cipal highways in this county, there exist here peculiar facilities for the jter-
petration of robberies and the escape tif robbers, while t!ie supineiiess and
inefficiency of the executive officers of the county an- sui'li lu* to give, pnic-
tically, full license to crime ; therefore,

"Ihnolri'd, That the condition of this county calls imperatively for a de-
fensive organization of its citizens for tlie protection of life and i>roperty, and
f(ir the prompt adoption of all proper means to excite, and if necessary to
fiimpel, the executive officials to an active, efficient, rigiil, Jiiid persi vering
discharge of tlieir duties.

• ' A'eso/c('(/, That as the first step to the prevention and punishment nf
c rime, it is necessary that the hiw-loving and law-a)iidiug citizens shall iiuini-
lost. ]jy suili organization as ours, tiieir own intei'est anil deteiniination in
regard to the arrest and conviction of criminals, tliese organizations to cov-
respond and coiiperiite for tlie aceomplishment of these objects; and that
until the state of things wliicli now exists sliall be corrected, all honest men
should unite, without re [leet of party, to sustiiin and applaud those otiicers
who honestly and sat is, ''a <■ tori ly perform their iluties; ami to defeat the re-
( lection, and when p( s^ible efl'ect the renifival, of those who are inditferent,
(■orrupt, or inelticient.

" RVLKS AM> ReGULvVTIOXS OK Till: S(M IKTV.

■'First, This society will be called 'The J'^gjin Canon l'rci[)erty Protection
.Society.' It will be established for the mutual protection of tlie person and
ja-operty of each individual member of the community iigainst the oiitra,L;es
<if highway robbers, horse and cattle thieves, and dishonest p.'rsons. Second,
llach member on joining the society will jiledge iiiniself to al)ide by its rnh's
and perform what thtiy demand of him. Third, Tlie olhctn-s of the society
will consist of a president, viee-jaisident, secretary, and treasurer. ThcM-
will constitute an executive committee. l''oiirtli, It will lie the duty of eacli
member to give prompt information to the executive comnnttce, or to the
president or secretary thereol. wheni'ver he hears of the commission of an
outrage in the district, or wlicn he has leason to believe that uidinown per-
sona are prowling about under suspicious circumstance. Fifth, It will l)e the
duty of the executive committee, th(^ jiresidcnt or vice-president thereof, to
jilace themsclvea in immediate communication with the local authorities, and
in cooperation with, or acting under them, to use every exertion and employ
every means to bring the perpetrator of such outrages, or such suspected )ier-
ions, to justice. Sixtii, Wlien such information >»hall have been tiius properly

61G

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

brought before the constituted authorities, it will be the duty of the commit-
tee to choose by ballot a certain number of members from the society, who on
their part will be bound by their pledge to accompany the law officer or offi-
cers, and to cooperate with them in every step that may be found requisite to
detect or apprehend such susjiected persons. Seventh, If any property sliall
bo recovered through the exertions of the society, the owners shall be requirei I
to refund to the society a certain sum, proportionate to the value of the prop-
erty, toward defraying the expense incurred in the recovery of such property.
Eightli, No person shall be a member of the society who has not some legiti-
mate business or calling in the district; and when admitted to membership
no cause other than sickness or absence shall exempt any person from any of
the duties of membership. Ninth, There shall be no admission fees, but to
pay the expenses of pursuing and prosecuting offenders the executive com-
mittee shall levy an asi^essment on the members when occasion shall arise.
There shall be no sjjecial days of meeting of the society, but the members will
Ije convencfl by the president, or anj- member of the executive committee
acting for him, when their services shall be required. No habitual dninkard
or person of bad moral habits shall be a member of the society."

Upon the telco'raph poles of Promoiitorv one Sun-
day morning' in November 18G9 there appeared posted
a notice, signed hy the Committee of Vigilance, warn-
ing all loafers, pimps, gamblers, pettifoggers. thicAcs,
and cutthroats to quit the town within twenty-four
hours, or to prepare ti> be hanged each upon a tele-
graph pole. The suffering towns-people liad been
obliged t(» resort to this means to rid themselves of
a class wli(» were sapping society of its prosperity.
Having just organizetl as a permanent committee of
vigilance, they were determined to cleanse their town
of its moral impurities or decorate with a swinging
carcass every telegraph pole within the town limits.
Neither trees nor himber were plcMitiful in tliat vicin
ity. The many who availed tliemselves of this per-
mission, men who suddenly discovered urgent business
calling them to the east or to the west along th<'
road, some of them unsuspected liitherto of carrying
guilty consciences, it was wonderful to see. A com
mittee of three was ai)pointed l)y the Vigilancr
Committee, charged with power to convene the entiri'
body at any moment. The time having expired, th«'
Committee next day visited every saloon and all dis-
leputable houses, and warne<l the jiroprietors again>-t

VmOIXIA AND GOLD HILL.

harboring any suspicious persons, under penalty of
themselves being driven from town.

The following incident is one of cold-blooded and
unprovoked murder: Arthur Perkins Hefferman in
March 1871 approached one William Smith, who was
standing by a cigar store in Virginia City, and drawing
his six-shooter asked him what he wanted. Smith
replied, " I don't know that I want anything." " How
do you want it?" was Hefferman's rejoinder, at the
same time firing his revolver, the bullet penetrating
Smith's left eye and coming out at the top of his Jiead.
•'I fetched him!" Hefferman exultingly exclaimed as
Smith fell. Then suddenly, as if the possible conse-
nuence of the deed had all at once flashed upon him,
he added, "My God! I didn't mean it!" Upon his
jirrest he said to the officer, "I give myself up to you;
I have killed a man; it was an accidc»it; I didn't mean
to kill him." He was taken to jail. On the morn-
ing of jSIarch 25th, at one o'clock, a delegation of
the Virginia Vigilance Committee numbering eighty
armed men proceeded to the jail, and entering the
1 oom of the sheriff, demanded the key to Heflerman's
cell. This was refused, and the vigilants forced open
the door. Hefferman was led out with the avenijfing:
hemp round his neck, taken to the Ophir n.ine, and
handed from a beam that extended from one of the
buildings. The sheriff was exonerated, and tlie public
\\ere generally satisfied with the night's work.

This man was born on board tlie ship Pcr/ci))^, which
sailed from New Vork the 2(»tli of September I S46,
carrying a portion of that scaly crew, the Xew York
Volunteers. The oajitain's name was Arthur; so this
villainous spawn of villainous antecedents was dubbed
Arthur Perkins, and his origin and crA weic alike bad.
His father was corporal of Company F and liis mother
u sister of the notorious robber Jack Powers, who was
iilso a member of the same Company F. It is said that
"luring the year 1871 fifteen persons were diiven from
\'^irginia and Gold Hill by the Vigilance Conunittec.

6)S

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

i ■ '

Goorgt' B. Kirk, a native of Fayettu County, Mi.s-
80uri, cuuiu to California at an early clay. He was a
desperate character, liavinjij killed his uncle before he
left home. For five years he was in the Nevada state-
prison on a charge of burglary; during an outbreak
the warden, Alexander Hunter, was wounded, and
Kirk was believed to have shot hhn. Afterward he
lived at Virginia City, where his cabin was head-quar-
ters for roughs and vagabonds: he seemed to have no
legitimate business. At the time of the hanging oi'
Hefferman by the Vigilance Committee, he, with sev-
eral other des])eradoes, was warned to leave; he did so,
but returned. Warned once again, he left, and again
returned, threatening to get even with the vigilants.
This was his last visit, for on the evening of July 1'!,
1881, he insulted one, a stranger to him, but who
happened to be a member of the Vigilance Conmiittee.
Tlio vigilant notified his associates. Kirk was fol-
lowed t(t a saloon, Maere he was captured; he was
then talcen quietly to a trestle-work at the Siena
Nevatla mine and lianged. Beyond theii' little circle
nothing was known of it until it was all over.

During the summer of 1871 crime became rampant
at Pioclie, Nevada, so that it was deemed necessary
to organize a committee of safety. The committee
numbered about thi'ce hundred, and Henry rifles were
obtained with which to arm themselves.

Indians as well as Chinamen followed closely on
the heels of the audacious white man in the arbitrary
extermination of the wicked. Buffalo J^ill was a bad
Piute. He drank to drunkenness; then with a pistol
he shot another Piute, so that he died. Thus lie
was becoming quite civilized; so also were his brother
Piutes then fringing Virginia City, for on the .'Ust
day of December 1872 they organized among them-
selves a tawny, reptile-eating committee of vigilance,
and seizing Buffalo Bill tiiey killed him very dead as
boys kill snakes.

About eleven o'clock on the night of June .'], 1H74,

INFAMOUS CONDUCT TOWARD NATIVES.

GIO

thirty men entered the jail at Belmont, Xevada, bound
the sheriff and his deputy, and hanged two prisoners
named Walker and Mclntyre. Accounts of organiza-
tions and executions might be greatly multiplied in
this narrative, but further illustration of the workings
of the institution in this vicinity appears to me un-
necessary.

At Belmont, Nevada, in 1874 there was a popular
demonstration, of which the Belmont Courier of the
6th of June gives the particulars :

"Between twelve and two o'clock on Thui'sday morning, Jack Walker
and Charles Mclntj're were hanged in the county jail, with a slip of jKipcr
pinned on each of their backs bearing tlie inscription '301.' IJefore the
execution took place Sheriff Caldwell and P. C. Turner, liiis deputy, eacli
occupying separate rooms in the court-house, were securely tied, liands and
feet, and guarded for a time, perhaps ten minutes, after which they were left
in that condition, unable to move. Sliortly aftenvard, however, night-
watchman (iatos, noticing movements that aroused his suspicion, repaired to
the coui't-housc, and found the light usually kept burning in the cDurt-room
turned down. He then went to the doors of the sheriff and deputj', and after
some little dithculty succeeded in gaining access, and found the two officers
securely tied and destitute of arni.s. < Jates released them, and the three went
below and found Walker and Mclntyre, each su.spended, witli I'opes round
their necks, to the upper floor. Mclntyre had been tried on Maj' Gth for
ilrawing a deadly weapon, not in self-defence, for which the justice at the
tune iniposeil a fine of two Imndred dollars, or impri.sonmcnt at the rate of
two dollars per day until the exhaustuig of tlie amount aforesaid. Walker
had been taken into custody for tlie .shooting of II. II. .Sutherland on the
moniing of the (ith of May, for which otFence he was lield to ap|)ear before tlie
next grand juiy. The two victims. Walker and Mclntyre, escaped from jail
during Monday night, and were captureil iind lodged in jail again on AVednes-
day. From all accounts these two had taken the lives uf many men in
diflferent parts of the country, and had the re|iutation of being ilesperate
characters. Between the tinie of their connnitiiient and hanging it appears
they had made threats to take life and destroy prf>perty. Once they were re-
leased from custody, and from the peculiar framing of the present jury law
their chances for acquittal were quite probable. It is not our pur{)08e to
justify the hanging of these men, but in all reasonable probability to avoid
theii- threats being carried out, together with the certain knowledge of their
previous history, they were thus summarily disposed of. We trust that all
other desperadoes will take warning, if there are any in our midst, and profit
by the example motle."

Two natives, Tempiute Bill and his brother, w^ero
airested by the Shoshones in January 1875 and

ill

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF UTAH AND NEVADA.

brought to Belmont. There the .sheriff took them,
and while on the way to Hiko one of them, Bill's
brother, broke away and escaped. Bill was then
taken from the sheriff by the people and conducted
to Hiko. He confessed to many murders, one of
which implicated a savage called Moquitch, who was
sent for, and the two hanged. This was not the
worst of it; this is not the disgraceful part of the
story. Full of rage and vile drink, after the hanging
of the two aborigmals the people of Hiko went to a
camp near by and massacred seven natives, some of
whom were guilty and some innocent. This was
most dastardly; and had the diabolical deed been
perpetrated by savages upon whites, all the world
would have lifted its hands in horror, and a regiment
of soldiers would have been sent by government to
annihilate the nation to which the murderers be-
longed. How fortunate to be born white!

At Cherry Creek, Nevada, in September 1875 a na-
tive criminal was taken from the sheriff and executed
by the people.

At break of day the 17th of December 1875, as
two men were passing Carson cemetery they saw
swinging from the gate frame the figure of a man.
Returning horrified to town, they told what they had
seen, and soon crowds were pouring along the road in
that direction. It was ascertained the body was that
of a noted desperado named Samuel Burt. The om-
inous number "601" pinned to the breast showed that
the dread Vigilance Committee had been abroad the
night before. Robbery and incendiarism had been
prevalent of late, and in all large villainies Burt was
chief He had been frequently ordered to leave town,
but had refused to go. Those who hanged him were
disguised. They took him from the Emory engine-
house, where he had been accustomed to sleep foi'
some time past. He made no disturbance when
awakened by the fearful summons, "Get up quickly
and dress vourself; vou are wanted." He seemed t<»

^VINNEMUCCA.

6-Jl

realize all in an instant, and did as he was bade in all
things, quietly and quickly. It was a good desperado
at the last.

About the 1st of July, at Ward, Nevada, a native
having attempted violence upon a white girl eleven
years of age, the citizens told his countrymen tlioy
must attend to it, whererpon they took their erring
brother and hanged him ; and the little white girl was
pacified.

As late as midsummer of this year, 1877, both at
Winiiemucca and Virginia, as well as in other parts of
Nevada, the Vigilance Committee was still in active
existence. At Winnemucca early one morning in
July a robust ruffianly figure was found suspended
from the limb of a dead tree in the burnt district with
the cabalistic "GOl" pinned to his back. Between the
good and the bad there is eternal antagonism.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF OREGON, WASHINGTON,
BRITISH COLUMBIA, AND ALASKA.

Justice, justice : woo betides us ever3rwhere when, for this reason or for
that, wo fail to do justice ! No beneficence, benevolence, or other virtuous
contribution will make good the want. And in what a rate of teniblo geo-
metrical progression, far beyond our poor computation, any act of iujustico
once done by us grows; rooting itself ever anew, spreading ever anew, like a
banyau-trcc, blasting all life under it, for it is a poisonous tree ! There in )jut
one tiling needed for the world; but that one is indispensable. Justice, jus-
tice! in the name of heaven give us justice, and wo live; give us only coun-
terfeits of it, or succedanea for it, and wo die !

Passing northward o\ci tlnj forty-second parallel,
we encounter in some localities new phases in judicial
affairs. First at Fort George, Astoria, were the Pacilic
Fur Company; then For a time the Northwest Com-
pany were master in all this region; afterward the
Hudson's Bay Company, and finally American mis-
sionaries and settlers.

It was customary for the fur companies to arrest
and try offenders. Sometimes a native criminal would
be handed over to his tribe for trial; or a jury of men
about the fort would be formed; or a mixed jury of
white mon, half-breeds, and Indians. Often of their
own accord the chiefs would bring to the white men
for trial an offending member of their tribe; or tlu;
parties to a quarrel would leave its settlement to the
white men, confident of their integrity. In all thest;
tribunals Indian testimony was taken even against
white men. This would scarcely be regarded with
favor in the United States; and yet if within all <jui-
border there could be found red men or copper-colore( I
who could surpass in lying many of our white wii-

(622)

UNDER FUR-COMPAXY REGIME.

(}-23

iiossos, particularly those about the Indian agencies,
who are most frequently called upon to testify ayainst
the Indians, they were indeed adepts in the art. Sir
George Simpson, as head of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany, in crossing the continent in 1828, and at other
times as he went from place to placi;, would hear and
<lecide cases while en route.

In May 1813 the Pacific Fur Company was robbed
of a silver goblet at Lewis River. Tlie chief of the
tribe promised to look for the offender, but did not.
The next nijjht the fellow was caught stealin*^ A
temporary gallows was erected, and the Indian was
hanged before the tribe, who agreed to his execution,
as the culprit was a kind of outlaw among them.

A half-witted American named Judge was found
with his skull cleft, near Fort George, in May 181.").
Native chiefs were summoned and a reward offered. A
Clatsop pointed out the mui'derers — there were two of
them — at Killamook Village, and they were captured
and brought to Fort George. A jury was formed of
gentlemen of the fort, and equal numbers of the prin-
cipal native men and women. Witnesses showed that
the deed was in revenge for a wound given to an
Indian robber some two years before by one of the
party to which Judge belonged, the natives wrongly
blaming him. The Indian women exhibited more
acutcness in cross-examination than the chiefs. The
prisoners were found guilty and t;ondemiied to be shot.
They objected strongly to being tie<l and to having the
cap drawn over their eyes, but they were compelled
to submit. Twenty-four men were selected by ballot
to shoot, but th(! I'ulprits were merely wounded at the
first fire, and had to receive the <:ou2) de <jrace. The
relatives took away the bodies lamenting; and the
l)romised rewards were paid the natives.

The unity, energy, and wealth of the Hudson's Bay
Company gave them great influence with the govern-
ment, and often procured immunity from crimes com-
mitted by their officials and servants.

siti

;li

6'24 OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, ALASKA.

Peter Burnett writes from Tualatin November 2,
1844, to the Indian agent for Oregon that he had
"attended the last term of the circuit courts in most
of the counties, and found great respect shown to
judicial authority everywhere, and dicl not see a soli-
tary drunken juryman, or witness, or spectator."

So few were the serious litigations in Oregon that
when the first circuit courts were held in the four
counties only one case of assault appeared, the punish-
ment being a fine of twent3'-five dollars. The highest
charge brought before an Oregon judge or justice up
to 1845 was for fighting a duel.

Jacob, a Russian renegade who had mutinied t»n
board the schooner Colonel Allan, was left a prisoner
at Fort George, but escaped and joined the natives
to rob the white men and attack the fort. Tired of his
pranks, and afraid of his organizing more serious
movements, ft)rty of the Fort George men surprised
the native village, carried off Jacob, and sent him in
chains to Honolulu.

Mr Hubbard, of Ciiampoeg, Marion County, had a
native wife. A neighbor threatened to take her, and
entering through Hubbard's cabin window for the pur
pose, the latter shot him. Rev. Mr Leslie presided
as judge, and the juiy returned a verdict of justifiable
homicide. Petitions circulated at this time stated
that theft, murder, and infanticide were alarmingly on
the increase.

Some time in December 1853 an Irishman in the
service of General Adair, collector of customs at Asto-
ria, Oregon, robbed the safe of three thousand dollars.
The collector had left his office for a few moments,
with the key in the safe; the Irishman was there
at the time, and there could be no doubt that he
took the money. Accused of the theft, however, Pat
stoutly denied it. As there were no witnesses in this
instance, he regarded a lie well adhered to as much
better than the truth. What should be done? The
law could not make him disgorge, for first the ofiencc

TRIAL BY Tin: ROPH.

6fiS

must be proved, tlioujj^l* tlnTo was, poilmps, cirrnin-
stantial evidence suthcient lor that; hut tlien l*at
could alKord to lie in [>risoii some time for tliiee
thousand ilollars. liutlcr Anderson was there at the
time, ajid ho told the collector that he would mana;jfe
it. TakiuLj with him a luunbei" of assistants, lie con-
<lucted the Irishman a short distance into the wood^i,
tied a rop(^ round his n(.'ck and threw one end of it
over a limit, duj^ a grave, drew ov'er the cul[)rit's face
a black cap, and then told him to say his jirayers, if so
great a thief as he without a priest could i)ray. Pat
Mas sceptical as to the sincerity of their inti it ions,
and when Anderson intimated that information as to
the wlierealjouts of the money might stay proceedings,
Pat felt sure that he was safe, and protested his inno-
cence more loudly than ever.

" The thing must be done," said Anderson. "Hoist
away, boys I" And up went the Irishman.

"Stop!" cried Anderson; " lot him down a moment."

Wiien Pat could balance himself upon his feet An-
derson asked him, "Are you sure you cannot t^ll us
where the money is:"'

"Oh Jasus!" cried Pat; "oh holy mither of ( Jod!
I'm sthrangled! As I hope to be saved, I Icnow nothing
of the money. Oh! plase, ]\Ir Anderson, let mi; <.;•<) 1'

"No use," said Anderson as if talking to himself;
"I thought perhaps ho miglit like to live. String him
up again."

Again Pat's fe-et left the firm earth; again that hor-
rible sensation; thick blackness, phosphorescent light,
the hot blood rushing in torrents to the brain, an un-
<'ertainty as to whether the neck was yet unbrolcen--
;ill this as the Hibernian W(!nt uj) and down again.
The joke was becoming serious to the suiferer. J'iVeu
if they did not mean it, the fun was not })leasant ;
and then they might hold him up a moment too long.
Alreatly he had thought much of his mother and sister,
wliom he had hoped to make rich in the sweet ]]meiald
Isle; already his neck and head felt very <pieer, au<l so

Poi'. Tbib., Vol. I. 10

r }

rill

c:n oRi:c;ox, WAi^iiixcTOX, britisii columdia, Alaska

hot, and licavy, aad soro. And tlion his soul: to j^o
hcnco a thic't' uiishriven, what wcmhl h(!eomo of liiiii ^
il(! would not risk it a third tiuu; for tlirou thousand
tlollars, nuich as lu) coveted tho niont-v. So he tokl
Anderson where he had hidden it, and was released
from the hempen remedy.

Prior to lHr)2 justices of the peace elected hy th"
people held almost unlimited jurisdiction, there luin;;
in most localities no available court ol'a{)peal. liel'orc
January of this year there was no county orj^ani/atioii
st)uth of the Calapooya ^lountains; and although in
tho sunnner of 1 852 rich <^old-diLj'j^in,t(s were discovered
on Jackson Creek where now stands Jacksonville, no
higher court than the lowest was held in that rei^ion
until the year following.

The miners of Orej^cjii wore in no wise behind those
of California in brii^htness of intellect antl resource in
cas(^s of emergency. The offer of free lands to actu.il
settlers by the government in 1850 drew thither from
the western bolder and from the New luigland states
a hardy and independent population, more st:iid and
substantial, if anything, than the mercuri d goM-
hunter of California. These, on the discovervof tiold
on .lackson Creek, Hocked to the new njines to fill
their pockets.

A justice of the peace had been elected for flii^
district just before the discovery of gold, liogors was
his name^ — a lean, crab!)ed, sinister-eyed man, wit!i
neither discernment nor honesty. lie did well enouuli.
however, when there was no business to be brought
before him, and for a time after the congregating <>t'
the miners he i)assed nmster, that is to say, until lie
was needed and known.

A case arose in the autumn of 1852 which brou<i!it
judicial affairs at Jacksonville to a crisis. Two mint! ;.
Sprenger and Sims, appeared before Rogers in a suit
for the settlement of partnership in a mining claim.
It appears that v/hile Sims was absent at Porthnul

ULTIMATE AI'PI:AL.

tsr

purcliasiiiijf supplies with partnership funds, Spre:!;^'(r
met with an aceitUjut while workinj^ the <'laini, which
laid him up. When Sims returned, lindiiiji; his |)art-
mr a hel[)less cripple, and likely to he a huideii U[K)n
him, ho arhitrarily dissolved the partnership and ap-
))r()priate<l the property to himself ; and lest his part-
ner should recover his ri<^lits in court, he won to his
way of thinkiiiij the only mat^istrate in the district,
and so felt secure. Sprenger summoned to his aid a
fellow-miner named Kinney, who ]>resented the' case
heforo Justice Koj,^(;rs fairly and with no little skill.
Law and equity were hoth in favor of his client, and
this was mad(i ))lain hy Kinney ; hut the eyes of justices
weredinuncd hv Sims' ijold-dust scattei'ed hefoj-ethem,
so that they could not sec. S[)ren^er lost his <'ase,
and a new trial was <lenied him; tlu; poor cripple in
his distress talked to his friend Prim ahout it, who
bt'inuf somewhat of a lawyer, consulted several times
with Kinney. Pnm, thoujjfh a miner now, was after-
ward chief-justice of Orej^on.

" It is all wrontj:," said Kinney on one of these occa-
sions; "I believe in sinn)l() straij^htiorwardness in h^T.l
matters, and in the court of(jrii,nnal iurisdiction Ixiir'
likewise the court of ultimate aj)peal, hut this oju'ii and
barefaced rascality shakes my faith in thetsries."

"There is no such thin<' on this earth as ultimate
a[)peal," replied Prim; "that is found alonis in the be-
yond. The farthest back we can jjfo is to the sourct;
of law, the omnij)resent power of the peopli;. Th.at
power is here, as indeed it is in every society, the
central idea and cohesive force."

"All right," exclaimed Kinney, half in jest and half
in earnest, "let us a[)peal to that power in this case. '

"We can do it — we will do it!" replied Prim, waxing
warm. " W^ho made this scoundrel judge? The pcoi)le;
and if the people possess the })ower to aj>point one
man to hang anotiier, may they not make a court
high enough to hang, if need be, ant)thor court which
ihey have made? 1 tell you, Kinney, within tvventy-

C2S OREGON, WASHIXGTOX, BRITISH COLUMBIA, ALASKA.

four liours I will have hero such a court of appeal as
will teach Orofjon and the world a lesson throutxhoiit
all ages — a lessson inscribed in the beginning upon the
hearts of men, but which is just now beginning to be
read, that over before all statutes and constitutions is
the unwritten law of man."

This was Saturday. The morrow would bo the day
of all others for the organization of the novel tri-
bunal, the court which was to try a court. Sprenger
was notified by his two friends of the course detei-
niined upon, and directed to summon the people. This
was done by posting on a tree standing in the main
street of Jacksonville the following notice :

" Whereas, the justice of the peace for the town of .laukaonville has reii-
(lerotl against nic an unjust ilecision, I liereby give notice that on Suudiiy
morning next at eleven o'clock, at this place, I shall cany an appeal to the
supreme court."

Likewise during the afternoon of Satunlav Sprenger
took occasion to visit the several claims ami camps i i
the vicinity, requesting the attendance of all <>n tlie
following morning to decide a matter of right and
wrong in which he was involved.

S[>renger's case was well known to the miners, and
the present appeal of the unibrtunate <'i-ipple was by
no means in vain. Long before the appointed hour
men were seen coming in from every direction, and
soon a vast crowd had gathered r<Hind the tribuuiil
tree. Aj)proaching the not:<'e. thiy read it, then
looked around \n wonderment. More came, until ovci'
a tliousand had gathered there. Presently Sprengi r
made his ap])earance.

"Where is your supreme court'" asked one of
Sjircnger, beginning to thiidc tlie atlliir a joke.

"There I" said S[)reng^'r, waving his hand before
the assembled host, "there is the supreme court et'
Jackscmville."

Kinney and Prim then came forward and confirmed
what S|)renger had said. They were honest, manly

A COURT TO TRY A CX)URT.

C29

men, these two miners, educated and thoughtful, and
tliey were now workini;^ for no pecuniary fee. In them
the miners liad the utmost I'aitli, and united the}'
could carry almost any point tliey pleased, for they
pleased to do nothing but the right.

" Yes, gentlemen," said Prim, as ho called the
meeting to order, "you aie the supreme court. Yoa
have here in Jacksonville law, but not ecpiity. Seated
ill the judicial chair which you have made, in the fair
somblauce of truth you have cheating and corruj)tion.
If after seeing what we shall place before you thi.-J
day, with all substantial [)roof, your maj.;i.:irate re-
mains in office another hour, you are not the men I
take you to be."

Kinney then i)roceeded to organize of those present
a tribunal of justice. Hayden, a genuine Connecticut
Yankee, subsequently for twenty years recorder in
one of the chief towns of southern Oregon, was called
ti> preside; a sherilf and a clerk were likewise chosen,
and the ]»eo})le were ready for business.

First Rogers was ordered to appear and answer
to tlie cliJirge of malefeasance in office. This ]\v re-
I'lised to do, not recogiiiziiig the authority summoning
liini. Yeiy well; lor the jjiesent tliey would get
alaiig without him. He might be glad to plead to
that tribunal befoi'e the day was past. Sims answi'ied
immediately the iirst call; he knew too well the
temper of his fellow-miners to attempt to trille with
tliem. He felt the power of the popular tril)unal,
1 hough the stubl)orii Rogers affected not to realize its
weight.

A jury of twelve was selected; witnesses were
siib[)a'nae(l, and the case of Spri^nger regularly re-
opened. Sims, with his hi'iieliman Jacobs, a promising
young lawyer from Michigan, and subseipiently cliit't-
justice of Washington, fought the evidence ineli by
inch, as if tlieir lives depended upon the issu«'. In that
assemblage they well knew that law and legal ver-
hiago had little weight; they must come down to the

.i.

i- k. I

CSO OREGON, WASHINGTOX, BRITISH COLUMBIA, ALASKA.

principles of simple truth and justice, in which com-
modities, unfortunately, their side was lacking.

The evidence over, an eloquent appeal on either
side, and the case was submitted to the jury. In his
(•liarge the president instructed the twelve that they
might divest the subject of the legal technicalities in
which the counsel for the defence had attempted to
cloud it, and judge it purely upon its merits, being
governed only by the sacred principles of right.

There was not the slightest difficulty in finding a
verdict for Sprenger; the trouble was what to do
with Sims and Rogers. Some were in favor of hang-
ing both of them, while others were satisfied witli
lianging one, although upon the question of which
should be that one there was a division. Finally
Sims was let off by making full restitution and rein-
stating Sprenger in all his I'ights. But this mild
punislnnent only tended to concentrate wrath against
Rogers, the unjust judge. Louder and louder grew
the ominous nmrnuu" that j)resages po[)ular outbreaks.
Ilayden saw it coming; so did tlie three attorneys.
The scale of Rogers' destiny was ready to turn u 1)011
a feather's weight. His life was scarcely woi'th a
I)ewter dollar. Already cries of "Hang the scoun-
drel I" "String liim up!" were lieard on every side,
and the crowd began their dreadful surge in liis direc-
tion, when Prim, Haydeii, Jacobs, and Kinney, all
with one accord threw themselves into the now deeply
agitated mass of humanity and begged them not to
mar that fair day's work by so foul a crime. Tiu y
were successful; the unjust justice's life was spare*!,
but only on condition that he should inunediately r(
sign, which he was but too glad to do.

One day in November 18G2 John Desmond iiml
William Lybia, Americans, were sitting at a table in
a saloon in the town of Auburn, Oregon. Toni tlic
Spaniard, a desperado well known throughout tlio
Powder River region, entered and proposed a gaiuo

TOM THE SPANIARD.

631

of poker. The Americans consented, but on clcalin«r
the cards the Spaniard had not the money wherewith
to ante. The Americans then rose from the table;
the Spaniard appHed to them abusive epithets, to
which the others retorted. Quick as a flash the
Spaniard drew a knife, stabbed one to the heart, and
then attacked the other. After a prolonged scuflK^
the Spaniard likewise stabbed this man to death, and
then departed. The barkeeper, the only witness of
the affray, seemed in no haste to spread the intelli-
gence, and the sheriff did not know of it until next
day, so that the nmrdorer had every opportunity to
escape. Nevertheless the sheriff, with several parties
of citizens, started in pursuit. After two days' search
the Spaniard was arrested by two men from ^Monaou
]>asin and brought back to Auburn. The <|Uo.sti()U
then arose what should be done with him, and grad-
ually amidst much lukewarmness and some opposition
tluy concluded that the man should be hanged. Tlio
sheriff confined the piisoner in a saloon, and with a
sv •:)))( guard within and without, declared he would
kcijp his charge at every hazard. Thus passed tliu
night after his capture. Next morning miners IVoni
the sui'iounding camps began to come in, and grailu-
ally the fiiction of ideas produced considerable excite-
ment, the result of which was a strong determination
on the pai't of the people to Jiang the prisoner in-
stantly. At eight o'clock in the niorning the throng
nbout the saloon was tlense. One Kirkpatrick mounted
a stump and addressed the people, advocating the
side of law and order. ]le was followed by a ^Ir
Johnson, who nrgu^'d that the law could not or would
not puni'<h, and that the people shouhl. Otiieis fol-
lowed, sustaining him. jNIany of those in the assembly
who were unarnjed wi're now seen proceeding for tiieir
rilles, and the fate of the Spaniard fast assumed fixed-
ness.

Justice Abell tliat day held court on a hil^-side
west of the town in the open air. A Strang ■ mix-

G32 OREGOX, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, ALASKA.

ture of law and disorder were some of these border
trials. The law was not strong enough to do much;
and wliilo the people came to the assistance of law,
the}' could not bring themselves to do things in the
legal formal way. They could get along very well
through the forms of trial, the taking of evidence, and
tlie determining the guilt or innocence of the prisoner.
That was necessary; that was only fair-[)lay. But
when it was dec-ided that a man was guilty, they could
not see why he shoulil not be executed; and when they
had anything to do with it they usually condemned
and executed. For that purpose had they left their
work. Thus it was in this instance. The people of
Auburn had a justice of the pcivce, and they might as
well use him; but whatever should come of the justice
of law, this nmrderer should hang. On this ]iill-si(K',
with a big bowlder for a speaker's desk and a smaller
one f( »r the clerk's, justice held her court. Before Abeil
the i)ris()ner was brought, and the multitude gathered
round. As the evidence was being taken it wa;>
written by the clerk and then read aloud to the au-
seniljlage. The jjeople present then apj)ointed a jm-y
to decide from the evidence the guilt or innocence of
the accused. Their verdict was " Guiltv of numler. '

"Shall the prisoner remain in the hands of the civil
authorities?" was then asked.

"Xol" was the rtjply, in a terrific yell, which rexiT-
berated among the hills.

Then arose the sheriff and said that he sliould de-
fend the prisoner, and recommended those pT'esent to
behave m a manner becoming gO(>d citize-ns. }£l' was
followed by (}. C. Bobbins, and the cahi)U<3.s.s witli
which he was listened to as he advocated unid meas-
ui*es encouraged the lovers of law in the hope th;it
the company would disperse witiiout doing violenc.
But it was only the lull before the storm.

Suddenly a rush was made for the Spaniard. TIk;
slicriii'and his men closed round liim, and the struggl*
became hot. It is worthy of remark in ail those con-

A FRATERNITY OF CRIME.

fljcts between the officers of the law and the people
that great care is taken on both sides to avoid seri-
ously injurin*:^ each other. Knives and pistols were
not the weapons used in seizing a prisoner; that is to
say, the use of deadly weapons would be the last re-
sort. Thus it was that Whittaker and ^EcKenzio
were permitted to go with the sheriff of Sun Fran-
cisco. The people had no desire to hurt the autliori-
ties for doing their duty. Nor did the slier i if, as a
rule, blame the people or question their right to do
as they did; only the low, his mistress, was a jealous
jade, and must be wooed coercively.

In this instance during the melee tlierc won.' hoard
cries of ''Shoot!" "Don't shoot!' followed by several
shots. The result biiing that three men were shot,
l)ut not seriously, by friends of the prisoiuT. One
Mexican after firing took to his heels, followed by
twenty or thirty men, who shot him dea<l. Then as
the dense mass surged and parted, the ]>risoner was
discovered in the liamis «)f the now madly infuriated
j)eople, who, seizing him by the chain attached to his
ankle, ron down the hill, dra<jfL!in<_»: him after them. On
ivaching Main street a rope was thrown i-ound his
neck; a hundred men laid hands on it, and ran with it
jilxjut half a mile i'arthor to a tree, where they pullt^d
liiiu Uji; but the man was dead long before the body
was hanged.

The officers of Yamliill County, Oregon, in the
spring of 18G5 boasted their liundred thieves' dis-
covery. The weakness of these outlaws was horses.
Desperate oaths bound them; though what is worth
liis oath who steals? Orii)S and passwords n>ade
them known to each other. The hainits of tins fra-
tiTuity were along Koguc; River and tlu; Umi>({ua and
Willamette valleys from Califoriiia to Idaho.

George Fry, living on the Umatilla Kivi-c, was
subject to periodical tits of insanity. Wliilc suilering
severely from an attack of ty[)hoid pni;umonia he was

C34 OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUaiELV, ALASKA.

seized with the fancy that his brother-in-law, William
Stoughton, a kind-hearted and highly respectabk;
man, at whose house Lu was carefully tended, had
poisoned him. So strongly possessed of this halluci-
nation was he that he insisted upon his removal from
Stoughton's house to the residence of Doctor Mar-
quan, his physician, who immediately examined him
and pronounced him poisoned. "If I am poisoned,
Stoughton has done it!" Fry exclaimed, "for he is the
only one who has given me medicine." Thereupon
Marquan circulated the report throughout the neigh-
borhood that Fry had been poisoned by Stoughton.
On the night of the 23d of February 18GG fifteen or
twenty persons took Stoughton from his house uiitl
hanged him upon a tripod formed of three rails taken
from a fence near by. Several persons were indicted
for the nmrder after it had been proved beyond qu(^8-
tion that not a particle of poison had been adminis-
tered the insane invalid.

The two worst thieves and murderers west of tlu;
Kooky Mountains were |)erhaps Owhi and Qualchicii,
father and s(m, chiefs of the Yakima tribe. For years
they had kept the whole country in confusion, and
had great iniluenoe over tribes accustomed to revolt.
()i) the 24tliof September 1853 Qualcliicn was guided
l)y nil <iieiiiy into the hands of the troo[)s at Spokane,
and was speedily run up to the braneli of a tree, he-
having ho cowardly as to be disowned by his fatliei',
wh(j was als(j a priH(jner. The latter was shot while
trying to escape.

T]ie grand jury of Walla Walla, reporting in Novem-
l)er 18G2, regard with evident satisi'action their un-
com])leted though oceupic^d jaih "The huihhng stand ^
on the public s(|uare," they say, "in a pleasant j)<»r-
tion t»f the city, and lias all the natural advantages of
a line (•ireuliding atnios])here. The p)Isoncrs say thev
are well led and propeily cared for, and exjiress en-
tire satisfaction with their treatuient." Altotifcthcr a

WALLA WALLA.

635

pleasant place in which to spend the summer; only
the accommodations arc inadequate for the rapidly
increasing number of guests. Among its other atl-
vantages tiie WaHlntxjton Statesman of the 30th of
]May 18G3 assures felons at large that "prisoners con-
iined in this structure have never had any trouble in
n^aking their escape from it when they wished to do
so." Hence it is not surprising a month later to iind
the farms of Coppei and Touchet stripped of their
horses, and seven thieves sending them word from
Snake River that with three revolvers each they
stand ready to defend their nev.ly acquired property.
Vigilance associations had been formed in every set-
tlement and mining camp of eastern Oregon and
Washington and western Idaho and Montana — of all
that region affected by the Boise mines — exce[)t Walla
Wallo Valley, where thei-e was no organization. As
soon as it was noised among the brotherliood, they
swarmed like locusts in tliis vicinitv. ]\[edita.tini^
upon which the men of Co[)pei and of Touchet, banded
lor }>uri)oses of wiw on ci-jnie, and (lignilying their
conijjact by the term vigilance committee, started for
Snake liiver. There the owners recovered tlu;ir
horses, but the onlv braves of tlu^ twenty-one re-
volvers then present wei-e William Ihmtou and Club-
foot George, and these niridi; good their e.seapi,'.
Afterward Uunton rode boldly iisto Walla Walla, and
although the authoiities knew him, and knew him to bo
there, they perniitt(xl him to esca[)e, wli(>reat the men
of C^oppei and of Touc.'hcst were very indignant, and
opene.l a lire, rt'gardless of gtaiuniar, tlirougli the
<'olunuis of the St<tt('s)i)(.tn, to whieii the sherilf re[)lied
ill current slang no less ivllned.

When Fort Walla Walhi was the centre of a savage
wilderness all was ordeily, and as a I'ule ])eaeel'iil and
safe. When near the fort th<' homes of settlers i)ei>a;i
to cluster, and the adlacenl vallevs were dotted with the
white man's cabin, tlie ailvantage of bloody « neounter.^
amony: human beings was not recoLinizeil. liut when

o o n

636 OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, ALASKA.

the mines of Idaho and Montana opened a route to
that region by way of the Pacific Ocean and up
Coknnbia River to Wallula, and Fort Walla Walla
became a point of departure for Boise and Lewiston,
and an entrepot for miners' supplies, the gold-god then
assumed his sovereignty, and with attendant fiery
drink and deadly weapons wrought hate and bloody
prrdemonium. Patrol and vigilance organizations
followed as a matter of course. How should a gov-
ernment capable of holding in check three or five
thousand drinking, blaspheming adventurers of un-
harnovssed tempers rise in the forests or drop upon the
plain !

During the first half of 18G5 the city and valley
were more than usually infested by thieves and
vagabonds. The jail was well nigh useless as a place
of incarceration, and tlio lavv' was utterly inaduijuato
to protect life and property. The people were divided
as to the right or necessity of tlie vigilance organiza-
tion then existing. Upon the affidavit in A[)ril of
one Dutch Lewie, who affirmed that ho had been
taken from his bed by vigilants and partially hanged
in order to make him tell what he di«l not knov.', and
confess to what lie had not done, five persons wei-e ar-
rested, ibur of whom v/cre immediately discharged and
the other held to answer the charge of assault witli
intent to do bodily injury. Again about the same
time a half-drunken, boastful v'gilant was seized by
tlie opposing party, calling themselves law and order,
perlia[)s in irony, taken to a room, and, a handker-
chief tied round his neck, clioked in the endeavor t<>
extort the names of the members of the Vigilance
Conunittee.

])uring the winter of I8G4-0 the residents along
the Walla Walla River came together as one man,
and organized a vigilance associatit)n, so that they
miglit rid theniselves of tliose that preyed upon them.
Among other regulations the mniestic red inpn was
ordered not to loaf in that vicinity. To hib kennel,

\VIIOLESALE HANGING.

037

the reservation, he was directed to ^o by tliis latter-
day liberty despot, and there t> eat the crumbs of civ-
ilization and dream of the time when he too ordeied
stragglers off his parks and hunting-grounds. This
committee began by requiring all bad characters to
leave. Those that disobeyed they hunted to the death.
One Goudron was re(iuired to depart. Charles Fancy,
a half-breed, was caught, and the question being put if
he should be hanged, a majority of three voted in his
favor. He was not long in quitting those paits when
freed. A horse-thief was followed into the Blue ^loun-
tains, near the source of the Umatilla River, in April
18G5, where he was captured and hanged.

The actions of the Walla Walla Connnittee about
this time speak for themselves. Sunday morning,
the IGth of April 18(55, a cattle-thief, McKensie, was
found just below the town, near the race-track, hang-
ing to a tree. On ^tonday, the 1 7th, Isaac Reed and
William Wills were found hanged at the Walla Walla
River. These men were cau<>:ht and tried bv the com-
mittcc at Wallula for stealing horses. They confessed
to several thefts; to having horses tiien secreted on thi;
Columbia River above Wallula, and to having killed
one of their own number in a quarrel at their I'cn-
dezvous. Next day, Tuesday, a negro called Slim
Jim was found hanging to a tree about three (juarteis
of a mile east of the town. He had stolen a horse,
killed a colored man in the Boise Basin, fuiiiished
two criminals implements to break jail, and served a
term in the Oregon penitentiary: enough to detei--
mine the fate of the black man just then, though at
another time he mii^ht liave lived on and have doubled
iiis catalogue of evil deeds. The Portland Orcr/oiiiau
of the 2 1st of April comes out in an editorial, begin-
nini; " Fifteen men hanijed at Walla Walla." Di-on-
ping rapidly in the number of executions it finally
•isserts that its informant knows of six I Such is
the reliability of report, and this within so short a
distance.

ill

688 OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMDIA, ALASKA.

The following appeared in the Walla Walla States-
man of June 15, 18GG:

•'VIi;iLAXCE COMMITTEE NOTICE.

"Walla Walla City, June 0, 180(1.
"Editor Statesman:

"Will you {{ive notice through the medium of your paper that the Vigil-
ance Committee has l)cen organized over a year, and during that time has
not Ikjcii entirely idle ; but whether it has accomplished any gtXMl or not, tho
public are the judges. And the committee further give notice that tluy
have made some amendments to their former ])lan of organization, whicit
enables them to act more expeditiously, and with greater certainty in ferret-
ing out the jicrpetrators of crime ; and the committee stand ready to n^di'css
all crimes, and execute summary justice lietween the perpetrators of crinu',
no matter of what grade, and the interest of all goo.l, well disposed, and law-
abiding persons; and we make no distinction l>etw<!cn oilicer and private,
rich or ]>oor, or %'igilant and anti-vigilant. All arc bubjccts for our action
in the way c>f crime, and will receive c(jual justice at our hand.

" By order of the

"VUilLVNCE COMMITTEK."

At Clearwater bridge in October 1871 one Jack
Moran was liani(cd by the people for enlarging some-
body's mouth and cutting off his cars.

What business New Dungencss, a little landinjj^-
place on the Washington side of Juan de Fuca Strait,
has to talk about vigilance committees is beyond
ordinary comprehension. With a good territorial
government, a staid popi'ation, and no great influx
of unruly strangers, it would seem that a handful «if
fishermen and traffickers might exist without resort
to hempen justice. And yet I find recorded that i)ii
the 13th of June 18G4 two men, Gould and Tucker,
deserters from one of her majesty's ships at Victoria,
and who had been the terror of the country for soiiu!
time previous, were shot by those calling themselves
a vigilance committee.

Further than this, a regularly organized vigilance
committee, with its officers, sub-committees, No. 54
secretary, hanging-master, and all the appointments
for efficient work, was formed, expatriating and exo-

AN EVIL ASSOCIATION.

G30

cuting ad nauseam. Hero is one of tlicir ordoi's to
luavo :

"New Dunoesess, July 10, 1804.
"To JosKPn CuFFonD:

" Bo it known to you tliat tho Vigilance Committee of tliis place have
arrived at the conclusion that you or your scrviccH are not wanted in this
country any longer tlian this next week, for tho reason of the tiireats made
by you ; and if you are found in this country after tho KStli day uf the present
month you may exixjct what your fate will be.

" By order of the Comniittec, No. 54, Sicretar;/."

Tuokor, above mentioned, had received sueli a no-
tice, to which he j'aid no attention, and death t'ollowecl
disobedience.

Two otliers received notice to depart al)ont tlie Gth
of May 18G4. Say.s the Victoria C/uvnldc:

"Tlicy wore ordered to leave tho country for (as they say) Iwing repultli-
cans, and the Vigilance Committee, being comiiosed of deniocmtic copj)erlica<ls,
wished to get rid of their votes and opiK>sition at the electinn, the leader of
the vigilants being a candidate on the copperhejid ticket. Tlie sentence was
death should they return to that country. On Friday last our inforiiiiints Mere
on their way to Port Townsend from Victoria to atten<l court, when the
canoe in which tliey were was blown ashore on Diamond Point, above Dimgc-
ness. Tlioy put up at a settler's house on the beach, aud in the niidille of tho
night were awakened by nine vigilants, all of whom were armed with guu-<
and revolvers. They pinioned the two men and took them back to Duugeness
ill a plunger. On Monday the Vigilance Committee, to the number of forty
or fifty, gathered togetlier and tried the prisoners, who told them iliat tliey
were on their way to Port Townseud to see tlie vigilants when driven ashore
by tho wind. The eonmiittoc talked f)f hanging the men up forthwith, but
the members were divided in opinion on tlie matter, the parties w ho opposed
the hanging denying that the prisoners had ever committed a crime which
would justify their executicm. The men l)egge<l and jirayed for life, and
finally, on the promise that tlicy would never return to Washington TeiTitf)ry,
nor enter any suit against their prosecutors, they were liberated. Tliey were
allowed three days to sell their farms, which was ellectcd nt a ruinous price,
anil they left, arriving here yesterday. The Vigilance Committee have sworn
to drive out or hang several other settlers, who at present are absent from tho
country, on their return. "

Chfford and George Lawrence, who were favored
with hke notice to leave, were said to have been
men of f^ood character and long residence in Wash-
ington Territory. If we may believe C. M. Brad-

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C40 OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUJIBIA, ALASKA.

shaw, writing from Now Dungcness to the Olympia
Standard the 1 1th of July 18G4, though the organiza-
tion was wide-spread, extending into the adjoining
counties, it was a bastard association, and in no wise
entitled to the name of vifjdanco, "Do not be de-
ceivcd into the error that this mob is the people of
this comnmnity," he says. "When it was gotten up no
notice was given, no invitation to the public was held
out to come in, but it was organized ])rivately, only
certain ones that they were sure wei'e bad enougli
to do any act, however unlaM^ful or bad, being in-
vited to join; and up to this time they have no
members but democrats and copperheads, and every
man they have assailed thus far has been for the past
two years a member of the union party." Mr Brad-
shaw was in error regarding its being a political
organization with no union men in it. There were
good men of both parties members of this associati(V.i,
but their mode of execution was simply cowardly
murder, being to lie in ambush and shoot those whom
in secret they had found guilty.

A bad element hunij: around Port Ludlow during"
the summer of 1865, and the people determined to bo
rid of it. The 14tli of August two villains in open
day knocked a man senseless and robbed him of
sixty dollars, and then fled to the woods. Two friends
of the robbers seeking to shield them were seized,
whipped, and driven away by the people. Search was
made for the robbers by the sherilf, who apprehended
them and brought them before the justice of the
peace. The citizens fearing escape, took them from the
authorities and tied them to a fiag-staft', where they
confessed their crime and returned a portion of the
money; then giving them a dozen lashes each, they
])laced them in a skiff and set them adrift, with a
warning never to return.

In July 18GG the body of an Irishman who had
been hanged by a mob was found under a tree ncai-
the Walla Walla River.

LAND-JUMPERS.

n41

' A.ndrew Inkstor, or, as he was generally callecl,
Charles Adams, according to his own statement was
the first discoverer of gold on Fraser River. In
18.58 Inkstor, then living near the mouth of Fraser
Iliver, was called upon, rifle in hand, by Charles
McDonald to pay a debt due one McCaw of Steila-
coom.

" I shall not pay it," said Inkstor.

"If you don't I'll shoot you," McDonald replied,
raising his rifle.

"Shoot and be damned!" returned Inkstor, reaching
for his revolver.

And McDonald did shoot, sending a bullet straight
throng] I Inkstcr's heart. Pursued by government
officers, the murderer fled across the line and reached
the American side in safety. Soon after he apjieared
at Steilacoom, where he figured as a desperate cliar-
acter for several years. Becoming virtuous, or de-
sirous of monopolizing murder, in 18GI he gathered
a mob, which he dignified by the name of vigilance
committee, and drove Charles Wren, accused of crime,
from his land near Steilacoom and took possession of
it himself Much trouble was then experienced by own-
ers of land, caused by 'jumpers,' as they were called,
seeking forcible possession. Thus matters proceeded
when in January 1870 McDonald, growing bolder,
leagued with certain bad men, ]3ergli, Gibson, and
others, to jump some of the best farming land near
Steilacoom. The people saw that the time for action
liad come, that they must prepare themselves to l)ow
l)ofore villainy or oppose it. So bold had tlie claim-
jumpers become that they openly avowed their pur-
])ose to resort to violence and nuirder if necessary to
the accomplishment of their purpose, and on several
occasions settlers had been shot at from thickets, and
imtices embelhshed with a death's-head and colHn
wore found in the post-office directed to citizens in
various parts, threatening them with assassination if
they refused to vacate their land. Forty of the set-

Pop. TiUD . Vol. I. 41

642 OREGOX, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, ALASKA.

tiers now banded, armed, and started in pursuit of the
claim-jiiinpers. McDonald and Gibson hearing of it,
started for Wren's claim to join Berg. The mob con-
sisted largely of the old servants of the HudsonV; Bay
Company, French trappers, and half-breed fur-hunter!,,
who had their own way of doing things, which, if bor-
dering on brutal savagery, was honest and direct.

Justice, hunted and vengeful, had sought the thick-
ets and there issued her verdicts in the shape of bul-
lets, which whizzed past the ears of those marked for
punishment. Seeing the desperadoes coming, the set-
tlers hid, and as they approached fired upon them.
Gibson fell, pierced with two l)alls. McDonald, slightly
wounded, leaped into the thicket and started for Steil-
acoom, about five miles distant. Gibson was placed
in a wagon and conveyed to town, where the settlers
found McDonald, with his wound dressed, ready to
fight. Some of the assailing party advised him to
disarm, which he did; but meanwhile the crowd had
consulted and determined to kill him. When jNIcDon-
ald heard of it, he asked for time to arm; they told
him to do so, but as he turned to take up his gun,
the word was given to fire, and bang! bang! followed
in quick succession. The wretch ran shrieking into
a billiard saloon, but soon he was fatally struck.
Gibson, reviving, seized a revolver and discharged tv.o
shots at the enemy, when ho was riddled with bullet ^.
These people delighted in hunting; hanging was not
their forte.

During the autunm of 1870 incendiarism was fie-
quent at Olympia, when the Tribune suggested tlio
organization of a vigilance conunittee "to hang the
first man or men caught setting fire to proi)erty in
Olympia." The Standard opposed the measure.

Considerable excitement prevailed about this time
in regard to land-jumping, particularly in the southern
part of the territory and along the line of the ] no-
posed railroad, where land had suddenly assumed
fictitious value.

AFFAIRS AT SEATTLE.

643

At Port Gamble in May 1871 robberies round the
mill camp becoming frequent, some Chinamen were
suspected. Complaint was made and several arrested,
but all denied the theft. This did not satisfy their
accusers, whom the sheriff finally told to do with the
Celestials as they pleased. It seems they pleased to
hang two of them to a derrick until they were nearly
dead, when unable to obtain a confession they drove
them from those parts.

Mitchell, a half-breed, for killing an Indian at
Tacoma the 17tli of April 1873, was hanged by tlu;
people. Ten days later at the same place a native
called Jim Shell killed Louis Moroe, a Canadian.
The murderer was arrested, but was taken from the
sheriff by the people and hanged.

Since the days of the California Inferno there has
been no more prompt or thorough display of popular
justice than that which occurred among the staid
citizens of Seattle so late as the I7tli of January
1882. The occasion of this display was the killing of
(jreorge D. Reynolds, an estimable young man, by two
footpads, James Sullivan and William Howard. In-
stead of throwing up his hands as ordered, he at-
tempted to reach for his revolver, whereupon iie was
shot, and died in two hours. The people of Seattle
were very angry; within two hours after the murder a
committee of safety was organized and officered, and
after two hours more the villains were arrested and
delivered to the authorities. Brought into court the
next morning, at the end of an examination wherein
they had been remanded to the custody of the sheriff
for trial, the inmates of the court-room rose in a body,
and while some seized and held tlie sheriff, judge, and
other officials present, others hurried the prisoners to
their death. Lying in jail at this time was one Payne,
convicted of the murder of Officer Sears, whom like-
wise the citizens hanged. A coroner's jury found in
each ease that the deceased "came to his death by
hanging, but from the evidence furnished wc are un-

■

CM OREGOX, WASIIIT7GT0X, BRITISH COLUMBIA, ALASKA.

able to find by whose hands. Wc arc satisfied that
in his death substantial and speedy justice has been
subserved." '

Tlie Northwest Coast liad its lialcyon days, when
the fur companies found it to their interest to treat
the red man kindly. Theft was then almost unknown.
In their traffic with the natives, store-kce[>ers were
accustomed to give them credit; and it was found
that when the savage was properly treated and trusted
he was as honest as tlie civilized man. Justice Beg-
bie, returning fron. a circuit along Frascr River, re-
ports to government in April 1859 that there was on
all sides a submission to authority, ii recognition of tlu;
right, whicli he had not expected among so mixed a
poj)ulation, with so large a predominance of the Cali-
fornian element. There were few complaints of any
kind, and none of violent crimes; and this where law-
was little known and justice seldom sat in sedate
robes. Britisli Columbia, for the most part, has en-
joyed from its earliest occupation a good government,
much better than usually fell to tlie lot of the border
communities of the United States.

In the summer of 1842 Sir George Simpson, then
at the head of the Hudson's Bay Company in Amei-
ica, came from Red River to Vancouver, whence Ik;
proceeded to Fort Wrangel, on the Stikeen, near
Alaska, to investigate the murder of John McLough-
lin junior, son of the chief factor west of the Roclcy
Mountains. The deed took place in April of that
year. Simpson arrived at the conclusion that the
nuu'derers, servants of the company, had been excidd
by McLoughlin's cruel and overbearing conduct. ^J'h( y
had nerved themselves by stolen whiskey on tlie niglil
of the murder. Every person in the establishnuM.t
appears to have been mutually bound to kill liim, so
that no disinterested testimony could be obtained cx-
cept to show justifiable homicide of a drunken, quai-
rels(>me, and cruel man. But this was not satisfactoi \ ,

AMONG THE FURTKADERS.

045

aiul James Douglas was thereupon sent to sean-li
deeper into the matter. One man testiiied that every
eni])loye liad signed a writing agreeing to murder
]\teLoughhn, who seemed aware of Ids end, and who
luid affirmed to Ins wife that lie would die like a man.
jNIeLougldin fired first; his shot was returned, and
after a respite the hullets of the mutineers stretched
him low. MeLoughlin's servant seems to have ke|>t
him informed of the plot, and was eonstantly on the
wateh for the attaek, though the man coid'essed he
would not defend his master. MeLoughlin had flogged
the men, kept them from going with other men, and
was suspeeted of intrigue with a traj)[)er's wife.

Tlie officers and men of the Hudson's ])ay (V)m-
))any wei'e bound hy strict agreement to subserve the
interests of the company; they could accpiire no ])er-
sonal or real estate outside tiieir pay, and were subject
to such punishment for neglect as tlie officer in charge
might impose, having no a[)peal.

By 1845 tlie English government had extended tin;
civil laws and jurisdiction of Canada over the North-
west Coast, and had commissioned .lames iJougliis,
Angus j\IcJ)onald, and Mr Work as justices of i\\v.
peace in civil cases involving not over two hunth'cd
pounds. In criminal cases, if the magistrate found
sufficient cause, he might send the accused to Canada.
In all minor matters the Hudson's Bay Company's
v.ill was absolute. Their men were bound to obt-y
officers like soldiers. Flogging was a connnon ])nn-
ishment inflicted by all, from governor down to petty
clerk.

An Indian shot Mr Black, the chief trader at Fort
Kandoops, in i-evenge for some injury. The fort was
<l(jse(l against the tribe, and no trade allt)wed till the
murderer was given up and hanged.

Mr McKay had been killed by a native at fhe
mouth of the Columbia River in a druidcen brawl.
An expedition set out to punish the tribe unless the
murderer was surrendered. He was given up and

i;. {mi

C4G OREGON, WASHINGTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, ALASKA.

liangecl after jury trial. All the white men present
hoisted him up on the gallows, strangling him, which
proceeding filled the natives with horror.

In another case of the murder of a servant of th(!
company hy a princij)al chief, Mr Douglas went alone
to the lodge of the chief and shot him dead. The
white men were few, and none had dared to gain tlic
reward offered by Douglas. These cases show tiu'
absolute sway of the fur companies over the natives.

In August 184G a man jumjied the claim of a
Hudson's Bay Company's servant near Vancouver.
Douglas, who was justice of the peace and county
judge, gave the sheriff a warrant of arrest, and the
man was put in irons. An American advised him to
decide the case against his own people, or the man
would bring suit for false imprisonment. The man
accordingly appears to have received some compeuf^a-
tion and to have been released.

The gold excitemtmt had attracted from California
a most reckless set of men, whose names liad been
duly recorded by the Vigilance Comuiittee of Sun
Francisco. The police had only been established at
Victoria since July 1858, and consisted of some dozen
untrained men, while no troops existed nearer than
Esquimalt. A riot had caused a call to be made foi-
troops to Victoria, which, however, were required
merely to arrest a drunken miner.

By the Gold Fields Act of 1859 the acUng gov-
ernor of British Columbia was authori.xxl to make
laws for the regulating of mining districts. Actual
settlers on agricultural lands were placed in fee-simple,
under certain conditions, of one hundred and sixty
acres of land. Besides magistrates for the respective
districts a gold commissioner was appointed to Low
after the mines.

One day a blustering Yankee came to the goveriK r
and asked permission for a number of Americans t ;
settle on some land. His request was granted en
condition that they would take an oath of allegianeu.

UBIQUITOUS NED.

647

"Well," said the Yankee, "but suppose we came
there and squatted?"

" You would bo turned off."

" But if several hundred rnme prepared to resist?"

"We should cut them to niince-nicat, sir!"

This same governor, Douf^las, while in charge of a
trading-])ost, was one day informed by his officer tliat
insubordinate natives were forcing their way into the
fort, and the officer asked if he should man the bas-
tion. Douglas coolly replied: "Give them a little
bread and treacle." And indeed this was effective.

It was the province of California to bless and to
curse. She has made many rich and has dropped
happiness into many a distant home; she has wrung
the very souls of those who courted her, and scattered
liealth and hope to the wind. In like manner slie has
done her neighbors good and ill; good in assisting
them to develop their resources and in giving them
the benefit of experience, and ill in sending them the
refuse of her population, cursing them with the very
element which cursed her iir.st attempts at nationality.

There was Ned Mcfiiowan, judge, gambler, and
shoulder-striker of San Francisco, and refugee of vigil-
ance, who, liaving done as nmch wickedness as Cal-
ifornia was willing should go unrewarded, went to
British Columbia, where we find him in the winter of
1858-9 still stirring disturbance amonjjr men at Hill
Bar, two miles from Yale. There he ])lanted himself
upon a mining claim and gathered round him a crowd
of* reckless imitators, so that in January the govern-
ment was obliged to send troops to restore order. At
Hill Bar one of the most intelligent of tlie miners
was made resident magistrate; at Yale were two, one
of whom being a rascal was dismissed, while the other,
though honest, was unfit for the position. The three
judges were at constant variance. Each laying claim
to a certain case, the Hill Bar man swore in special
constables, and removed the prisoner by force to his
jurisdiction. Of these special officers McGowan was

-til]

'■Pi

C48 OREGON, WASIIINGTOX, BRITISH COLUMBIA, ALASKA.

ono. Being indiscreet in the use of his authority, to
put the matter mildly, it was thoui^ht necessary
to chastise him; but so gentlemanly and entertain-
ing was he at the appnjach of punishment that he
was only fined, when a severer sentence might have
more evenly balanced his irregularities. Ned was
by this time at home anywhere in the environs of
justice.

The only two men who up to 18G-3 had attempted
highway robbcTy in British Columbia failed to escajjc.
" The extraordinary rarity of crimes of violence," say
Milton and Cheadle, *'is owing, we believe, in great
measure to the vigorous administration of the late
governor, Sir James Douglas, and the stern justice
meted out by Mr Justice Begbie, but also in part, no
doubt, to the nature of the country." Shut in by
almost impassable mountain barriers, there was small
chance for criminals to escape.

Tiie llaidahs encamped near Victoria had been very
troublesome for some time, and at last iired on a
schooner. The chief of police sent a body of men to
demand the surrender of the cul[)rits and of all their
arms. This was refused, and the governor sent
marines to surround them, which had the desired
effect. The offenders were brought to Victoria and
publicly flogged — a great disgrace in their eyes — and
all arms secured till the tribe should depart. A mis-
understanding a few days after caused the arrest of
two chiefs. Captain John and his brother. On leacli-
ing the police station the chiefs drew their knives on
the officers, and were immediately shot.

At Metlacatlah mission, just south of Alaska, the
magistrate had organized a native police, who are said
to have been well disciplined and effective. There was
a small calaboose of logs wherein the disorderly were
confined.

In May 1864 the Chilicoten tribe near Bute Inlet
robbed and nmrdered fourteen out of seventeen men
who were building a road there. Shortly after a

GAME PRESERVE AND GOLD HELDS.

649

trading; party iiu't the same fate. The govcrninent
pursued and hanged several.

The exeoutieii of a native called Harry f<»r the
slayinu^, wliile intoxicated, of a niend)er of a neigji-
horinijf trihe out of revenge for some ancient wrong
was denounced as a legal murder, opinion hcing that
he who sold the li(j[Uor should have suffered in the
Indian's stead. There was comparatively little high-
way jobbery in British Columbia. The cause is ob-
vious; first there was less upon the highway to steal,
and second, as we have seen, there was less chance of
escape. There were some robberies nnuid Cariboo,
however; one, tliat of a IJanish packer named George
Gibson in 18GG while on his way across JJald ^toun-
tain from Cedar Creek. He was shot in the head, his
twenty -five pack animals were scattered, and a large
amount of gold-dust which he carried was taken.

Before the tcgis of government overs])read Wild
Horse Creek and the neijifhborinij o'old-fields situated
in British Columbia near the llocky Mountains, just
north of the United States boundary, life and property
began to be so insecure that the miners found it neces-
sary to band and make laws for mutual prot* ction.
Wherever gohl is there is discord. Aijricultural and
pastoral societies can live harmoniously without laws
for years; but once discover rich gold-diggings and
the vultures of avarice fly in from afar and wrangle
over the prey.

In this wild district there arrived one day in 18G4
a collector of revenue. With him as assistant ho
had but one constable, and there were there fifteen
hundred miners, who had come in from the adjoining
territories, many of whom were known to be regard-
less of order. The officer found no difficulty however
in executing his connnission. Those who had as-
sumed authority gladly resigned to him; and in six
weeks after his arrival a code of laws, meeting the
more salient exigencies of their condition, was in force
and all dues paid.

Cno OREfiON, WARIIIXr.TON, BRITISH COLUMHIA, ALASKA.

Ah ill all tlio pcltry-proclufiiiij parts of the North-
west Coast, Alaska uj) to tho tiiiio it come into the
poHscssion of the United States was j,'ovi!rne(l hy
officei's of the colonization and fur ('oni])anies, whose
ipse dixit, except in certain cases of the higher order,
was law. Indeed the country was not then oi)en to
emigration and settlement, so that there was little «»p-
))ortunity for the display of free thought or action hy
the servants of politico-conmicrcial monopolies. The
natives were treated with the utmost severity by the
Russians; they were made to work like slaves, and if
disobedient or refractory were whipped or shot at
pleasure.

In June 1802, in revenge for killing certain of their
countrymen by the Aleuts in a quarrel, the Koloshes
rose and took the fort at Sitka. In due time they were
overcome and again placed under subjection to their
former masters. Hundreds of such instances appear in
the history of the pacification of the coast, and the only
justice administered in the settlement of difficulties is
that of tlie stronger arm and more powerful will. Retal-
iation was the law of the Europeans; humble subjection
the necessity of the conquered. And for a small offence
there must be great punishment. A hundred Koniagas
for the life of a Russian sailor was deemed about fair;
though if the Koniagas happened to be good seal-
catchers justice would be sat. fied with a nmch less
number, or even perhaps with the lives of the women
and children of the offending tribe.

A few incidents will tend to illustrate the quality
of early justice administered in these parts. At An-
dreaffski in 18G6, a deserted fort, there was once a
Ekogmut village, some of whose people worked at the
fort. One day when but two Russians were left in
charge of the fort, and these were coming naked from
a bath, the natives attacked and slew them. The;
Russians of Saint Michaels being informed of tl'c
tragedy, sent over a small force, who slaughtered
every one in the village ; since which time the natives

RUSSIAN JUSTICE.

681

of tlio lower Yukon liave never dared to lift hand
against their merciless masters.

For tlie killinj^ ofone of their numl)er,or otlier in jury,
the natives of Alaska requii'e*! paynient in money or
merchandise, and the jjfovernment usually I'licotjrnized
tlieir custom. In January 1 HOO three natives, a Cliilkat,
a Kake, and a Sitkan, were in some way killed at Sitka.
()l)tainin<if no satisfaction, either pecuniary or other-
wise, the Kakes killed two whites in retaliation. War
foll(>wed, in which the Kakes of that vicinity were well
nigh (sxterminattid and their villag(.> burned. So much
ior the Kakes. Five months later the Chilkats hoarded
a vessel and demanded money or life. A guarantee
for tlie payn)ent of money was given, and ou the
I'cfusal of the conunander at Sitka to recogni/e
the claim the Indian agent j)aid the amount and so
secured peace. At this time there were more '» nking-
saloons than private dwellings in Sitl;a. A couit-
njartial wo- h Id at Sitka tlu) 1st of Ayiril IHC!) lor
the trial (»f James Parker for killing a native v. iio liad
done - )me damage in a store in which the homicide
was clerk. The verdict was that the act was not
justifiable. Several soldiers were drummed out of
service in November 18G1) for robbiny: a Greek church
at Sitka.

Eight murders within the three years ending Octo-
ber 1870 seemed a large number to slow and si)arsely
settled Sitka. The same amount of slaughter in
JMontana within a month would hardly have suHiced
for gossip while it was being done. The Alaskans,
however, did not like it that each nuirderer of
eight, save one who was then in the military guard-
house awaiting trial, should walk away unf)unislied.
The savages did l)ctter justice than that. "We have
seen women and children," writes one concerning mili-
tary rule in 1870, "knocked down in the street by an
army officer and United States postal agent; we have
seen these two officers on the same day knock down
poor inofFcnsivc Russians, and the arii'V officer hand

052 OREGON, WASHINGTOX, BRITISH COLUMBIA, ALASKA.

the postal agoiit a pistol to kill an American. Wo
have known army officers to force their way into
private Russian houses and attempt to take liberties
with the women inmates that in any other country
but Alaska would have cost them their lives. Wo
have seen two companies of soldiers stationed ri^^ht
in the city, many of whom were not fit to run at
large or live outside the walls of a state-prison, and
who forced themselves into Russian houses as thougii
it was a part of their duty; and what has been the
result of all this? Simply that all the refined and re-
spectable ]X)rtion of the Russian poi)ulation have left
our territory heartily sick of and thoroughly disgusted
with the very name of an American. And who can
blame then) ? Who Avill not blush when he i-eads that
out of a Russian population of live or six hundred
in Sitka there are not over three young girls of the
age of thirteen years wlu) are not j)rostitutes ? And
in making this assertion we challenge contradiction.
The soldiers, stationed in the heart of ,^ the city,
Vvtiit around spreading contamination, disease, and a
state of ilemoralization only surpassed by that which
existed at the time Sodom and Gomorrah were de-
stroyed by an avenging God. We regret to say a few
of the army officers also acted more like blackguards
than officers.

In February 1870, at the club-house in Sitka, a
quarrel arose between Lieutenant-colonel Dennisou
and a discharged soldier named William Bird, who
demanded five dollars for })laying the banjo at a party
given by Dennison. Finally Demiison gave Bird tlic
money, which was employed in the purchase of fiery
liquid to feed the musician's already inllamed temper.
Bii'd then fell into a humor for slau'diter; so making'-
ready his pistol, he informed Dennison of the bent of
his desire, when that officer gallantly slapped the
sol(lic!r in the face and directed him to a less hypei-
borean climate than that of Alaska. Bird's rej)]y
was a bullet aimed at Dennison, but which took effect

S.VILOR AXD SAVAGE.

CSS

in the body of Lieutenant L. C. Gowan, standing
near, killing him instantly. Bird was arrested, but
while the constable was taking him to the guard-
house the crowd seized him and undertook to hang
him. It was a poor mob, a disgrace to the lynching
profession. What did this refuse of battalions anti
whaling-vessels know of artistic hanging? First they
threw a rope over the culprit and attempted to drag
him through the streets. Then, as if fearful they
might do something rash, they unloosed him, and
taking him to a place proposed for execution, they
fumbled a rope, as if with boneless fingers, until the
mayor appearing alone and unarmed took the mur-
derer by the collar and led him away, unmolested by
the nerveless rabble.

At a Sitka bar-room in June 1872 a soldier broke
some eggs in the basket of a Kolosh, who was offering
them for sale. Words followed; the savage slapped
the soldier, and the soldier kicked the savage. Khan-
ahkich, brother of the egg-seller, took up the quarrel,
and at the head of a party opened hostilities, and
fired several shots. IVIajor Allen, commanding, threat-
ened the refractory natives with his big guns. The
rc[>ly was, "Shoot, we are I'cady for youl" Uproar
followed. To the clamor of the soldiers for permission
to retaliate were added the insults of the Koloshes,
who, when they failed to see the big guns belch de-
struction on their villaije, cr''xl, "Boston tyhee is a
coward!" At length the disturbance was bloodlessly
quelled, and great credit is due Major Allen for his
humane moderation in the affair.

w '

■M

I'" I

1^ f- I

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF IDAHO.

Quel ponvoir inconnu gouveme les humains;
Que <Ig faibles ressorts sont d'illustros dcstuis!

Voltaire.

Little ceremony attended the conviction and execu-
tion of horse-thieves in Idaho. To sit upon a stolen
horse was dangerous at one time, as the position ap-
peared to be evidence sufficieiit to warrant the owner
in firing upon the person occupying it. Two horses
were stclen from one Henderson, living at Boise, in
November 18G3. Starting in pursuit, Henderson ovei-
took the horses at Camas Prairie, each having on its
back a rider. As soon as he came within range Hen-
derson raised his riiie and fired, when one of the men
dropped dead. The next shot brought down the other
wounded. After all, retributive justice finds nothing
so speedy as a leaden bullet. Leaving the two men
lying where they fell, Henderson took the horses and
returned to Boise, giving information of what he had
done at French Rancho, whose people immediately
proceeded in quest of the bodies, though they did not
find them until after dark. The thief killed was
Hitchcock, «//rt,s Johnson; the wounded man was Mike
Welch, who after disclaiming any knowledge that the
horse had been stolen, died. Henderson's conduct,
even if such arbitrary measures were necessary, was
that of a desperado.

Probably the most notorious affair in the criminal
annals of Idaho was the murder of one Lloyd Ma-
grader of Lewiston, Idaho, and the capture, trial, and

(6M)

THE MAGRUDER CASE.

665

execution of the assassins. It was one of the few cases
in which the people rallied to the support of the law,
bolstering the fledgling by their presence and in-
timidating it into the performance of its duty; so tliat
after all it was an arrest and execution by the people,
but done under covert of the law. Left to oflicer-s
of the law, there would have been no arrest; left to
the court alone, there would have been no convic-
tion. The people of Idaho in this case seemed de-
termined that the law, if possible, should fulfil its
functions, and in so doing are entitled to praise. They
were but just now under law; and like the boy with a
wooden donkey harnessed to his wagon, he could pull
the load much better alone, only he was bound the
donkey should go. Unfortunately such patience and
magnanimity is ordinarily too much for weak human-
ity. The law was inadequate for the purpose, and the
people soon found that theirs was tlie short and quick

In this instance the law did well; it did its best.
The inchoate condition of territorial affairs and the
absence of judicial implements rendered court trials,
to say the least, but little better than play at law;
and to make matters still more embarrassing, this was
the first court trial of any kind, civil or criminal, which
had been held in the territory of Idaho. The gov-
ernor in November 18G3 had divided the territory
into judicial districts, and had assigned judges to each.
On the 4th of December the legislature hatl convened,
and had prescribed by law territorial districts, reas-
signing judges thereto. A special term of court was
ordered held at Lewiston the first ^londay in Januaiy
1804. Yet the trial of Magruder's murdereis was a
model piece of court proceeding, and for the caufics
aforesaid.

The statement of the case is as follows: Lloyd
iSIagruder was a popular trader and packer living at
Lewiston, Idaho, but doing business also in Mon-
tana. In August 18G3 Magruder despatched a large

'mi

THE POPULAR TRIBUXALS OF IDAHO.

pack-train with mcrcliandiso from Lcwiston, Idalio, to
Virginia City, Montana. Talcing a short cut across
the mountains, he selected a favorable spot in the new
mines, pitched his tent, and on the arrival of his train
opened his stock. By the 1st of October fourteen
thousand dollars in gold-dust had taken tlie place in
liis affections of the goods and some portion of his
pack-mules, and Hushed with success the packer was
now I'oady to return to Lewiston.

Meanwhile it appears that a gang of scoundrels had
determined his destruction. Cyrus Skinner prompted
the deed, and when, at first, fear was expressed for
their own safety, Skinner reassured them by saying
" JJead men tell no tales." He himself did not ac-
company the expedition. Chief among the villains
was ]Jiivid Howard, familiarly called Doc Howai'd,
an intelligent and educated man, brav^e beyond (pies-
tion, and skilled in the practice of his profession. In
all alfairs of the highway he was looked up to by his
conn-adc^s as their leader. Christopher Lowry stood
next in evil eminence, being as ready, as lie expressed
it, to kill a man as to kill a calf Then there were
James P. Remain, an apt scholar of Chris Lowry;
William Page, timid 1)ut useful, as bold and con-
scienceless a crew as ever cut throat or dashed out
brains for money.

It was arranged that they should gain Magruder's
confidence wliile in Virginia and assist him, and under
some prcitext, after he should have turned his goods
into gold-dust, return with him, and as opportunity
oflfered kill and rob him.

Doc Howard planned the campaign, and, as the
sequel shows, carried it to completion with consum-
mate nerve and ability. Some of the men jNIagrudcr
had met casually at Lewiston and The Dalles, but
as none of them as yet were notorious for their
crimes he knew nothing bad of them. It was the
.special business of Howard and his party to make;
tliemselves agreeable to Magruder, and they so far

THE DEPARTURE.

657

succeeded that he took them all into his service while
in Virginia. This was a groat success for the vil-
lains. The packer had need of temporary assistance
in the disposal of his stock, and Howard and his com-
rades became the most affable and eflicient of ser-
vants. The chief and his lieutenant acted as clerks in
the store, and very careful were they that none of the
dust handled in that capacity should stick t(^ their
fiuijers. Was it not all their own? Paufe looked
after the stock, and Romain acted as cook. Thus
the days went by; in due time the business was
finished and the [)acker ready to return. It hap-
])ened that four friends of Magruder, Charles Allen,
William Phillips, from near Marysville, and Hoi-acc
and Robert Chalmers, two Missourians, bi-others, wore
about starting for Lewiston, and it was arranged that
they should travel in company. Doc Howartl and liis
comrades pretended concern in finding their occupa-
tion gone. They did not fancy working in tlie mines,
they said; prospects for honorable employment were
not very flattering, and they would by no means cn-
tcrfcain any other; they believed they could do better
at their old stamping-ground. The Dalles.

Whereupon the artless j)acker said to them, "Join
us; you shall be welcome; your journey sliall cost you
nothing; you shall each have a fat mule to ride, and
your poorer one can be turned out along witli the
stock; your presence will be additional protection."
JMephistopheles himself could not liave plotted and
j)erformed better than Doc Howard. With villainous
gratitude the cutthroats accepted the ])acker's proi-
f'ered kindness. All being in readiness the j)ai'ty
set oi o .rom Virginia City in high spirits tlu^ ;^l
of October. Besides the fourteen thousand dollars
ill gold-dust, the proceeds of his stock and jiart of
his pack-train, Magruder had remaining twenty-six
mules, which with six mules and eight horses belong-
ing to Allen and other members of the party, made
forty animals.

Pop. Tbio., Voi,. I. 43

111

4' ■

ill

' ''An

C58

THE POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF IDAHO.

All went well until the eighth day from Bannock
City, at which time a point was reached in the Bitter
Root Mountains one hundred and ninety miles from
any settlement, being west of the divide and between
the Clearwater and Bitter Root Rivers. It was hero
Doc Howard proposed to make his stand and execute
his bloody purpose. The two months' counterfeit of
honesty to these men was becoming irksome; i)haii-
tasnis of throat -cuttings and skull -crushings had
])layed with the imagination these many days, until
the diabolic deeds themselves had become familiar,
had been acted over and over many times, so that
when the real acting of them came there was a cool-
ness and precision about all they did, an audacity in
the scope of their project, a fearlessness of conse-
quence, a hellish abandon, an absence of race sym-
pathy and humane feeling, unsurpassed in the annals
of crime.

It was bright starlight overhead, though round the
blazing camp fire the night was thick with dark de-
sign; white-sheeted was the ground with snow, but
black enough the hearts that harbored this so foul
treachery. Earth and sky sparkled in their purity;
Stygian stench came mingled with fair words from
human breasts in which burned infernal fires. The
custom was for two to be on guard during the night.
The guard was relieved at twelve o'clock. It is now
ten, the hour appointed for the slaughter. Two tents
are pitched, and not far distant blazes the camp fire.
Just over the hill the nmles are browsing. In one
tent sleep the two Missourians; in the other, Phillips,
with Remain as a bedfellow, Allen a little apart, and
Page, who petrified with fear lies buried in his blank-
ets, for he is informed of that which is at hand, though
by reason of his sunken soul he is excused from active
participation in it. Magruder and Lowry are ou
guard. Howard lies hidden in the bushes near the
animals. As if returning from the stock, Lowry aj)-
proaches Magruder, who is seated by the camp fire,

MURDER MOST FOUL.

059

and informs him that the animals are restless, and
suggests that a brush fence be thrown across the trail
to prevent their wandering. Magruder rises, takes up
his gun, from which the caps have been removed, and
starts oft' with Lowry, who carries only an axe.
When near where Howard is, Lowry stops and begins
to cut brush for the fence. Magruder stoops to gather
the brush, when Lowry raises the axe over him and
bringing it down buries it in his brain, Howard
rushes out, having also an axe in his hand, and gives
Maffruder's head two or three additional blows.
Howard and Lowry then proceed to the tent of the
two Missourians, and each with his axe slays one.
Taking then their guns, they enter the other tent,
which is the signal for Remain to strike. The cry of
Phillips, as Remain's axe cleaves his skull, rouses
Allen, who is immediately shot by Howard, and this
most belluine of butcheries is finished.

The next thing to be done was to cover all traces of
their foul murder, that it might not be too quickly
discovered, that the countrj^ might not be aroused
before they should have time to escape it. For that
this blood should cry to heaven to be avenged, they
did not dream of aught else; but let now the roclcs
and mountains fall on the gory evidence of their
guilt until they should make good their flight. As it
was, even the snow and starlight were painful to them ;
for all nature, grown satanic, seemed now to laugh and
dance as in derision.

Wrapping the bodies of the murdered men, some
in blankets and some in tents, tlie murderers carried
them to the top of the ridge and rolled them over a
precipice; when, returning to camp, they built fires
over all the blood-bespotted ground, one out where
Magruder was struck, and others over the tent floors,
but like the blood of murdered Abel, the danming
evidence would not hush. Though they made great
fires which should consume all material things con-
nected with that niffht's work and threw into them

iJil

GGO

THE rorULAR TRIBUNALS OF IDAHO.

the camp equipage, paek-sacldles, bridles, ropes, cook-
ing utensils, and provisions; and though they after-
ward picked from the ashes the pieces of iron wliich
would not burn, and putting them into gunny bags
carried them down the hill and hid them behiiul a log,
throwing the superfluous guns into the bushes; and
though they likewise washed their bloody hands, and
buried their bloody axes, and burnt their blooily
clothes, and scattered the ashes, so that in the morn-
ing scarcely a vestige of the camp remained; and
though they even threw off their bt)ots and made
moccasin tracks all round the place and on the ridge,
thus attempting to lay their accursed deed at tlie
door of that scape-goat of border ruffianism, the mucli
maligned savage — vet the all-seeintj heavens woul<l
not cease to cry it aloud, nor the impregnated air to
whisper it wherever winds blew.

Driving the animals some distance from the trail,
across a stream and upon a small prairie, tlicy sliot
all but eight mules and one horse. Then takinjji: tlics
gold-dust which they had picked from the ])ockets of
tliu murdered men, and which, as is usual in sucli
cases, was not as much as they had expected to find,
thev rode on to Lewiston. Entering the town about
nine o'clock on the night of the 10th of October, they
put up at the Hotel de France. Four mules they
had dropped on the way; the remainder of the ani-
mals, accoutred as they were with saddles, blankets,
cooking utensils, and guns, they left with a friend, to
be called for. Page then proceeded to the stage oftico
at the Luna House and engaged seats for four pas-
sengers to Walla Walla, registering the names as
Smith, Brown, Perkins, and Clark.

As might have been expected, these foolish pro-
ceedings on the part of the robbers did not pass un-
noticed at Lewiston. Page had been recognized by a
watchman while disposing of the animals; and at tlu;
stage office next morning the four men answering to
the four commonplace names were closely regarded

HILL BEACHY PURSUES.

GGl

The gold-ilust

by Hill Beac'hv, the stage agont, and others. After
they had started the stage-driver noticed that they
carried considerable gold-dust. Continuing their jour-
ney to San Francisco, wherever they stopped they
assumed new names, and frequently de|)ositetl their
gold with the hotel clerk for safe-keeping during the
night. Arrived at San Francisco, Page and J^owiy
took lodgings in a pi'ivate house, while Howard and
Romain went to the Lick House
they de[)osit(!d at the mint for coinage.

Meanwhile the i)eople of Lewiston wonder where
Magruder is, and why he does not make his apjiear-
ance. From the Beaver Head country men arrive
saying that the packer's party had left two days l)e-
forc them and should now be there. The stage-driver
returning reports certain peculiarities of the four pas-
sengers. Closely following the sui-mises hence ar-
riving come tidings of the dead bodies of Allen and
Phillips, known to have been of the Magruder Jiarty,
and the air round Lewiston becomes thick with sus-
picion.

Taking the affair from this point, what follows
forcibly illustrates the diiference between the ability
and energy of court officials and the average man of
business in ferreting criminals and bringing them to
punishment. Every thought and action of the one is
hampered by form, while the other is free to emj)loy
his wits and to follow them. A most diabolical murder
lias been committed; the bodies of slain citizens are
lying in the mountains while their butchers are riot-
ing upon the proceeds of their crime in the city. And
there law would leave the matter impotent to avenge ;
but so will not Hill Beachy. True, interest and
friend^ip unite to spur the stage agent. There is
a large amount of money involved; reports of such
v^^holcsalc slaughter along the main lino of travel in
Idaho circulated about the world can but be dam-
aging to his business, by deterring immigration;
Magruder is a man of family, a personal friend of

662

THE POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF IDAHO.

Boacliy. But if our system of public service and
our court enginery were what they siiould be, were
what those who Hve by them affect to beheve them,
surely there sliouUl be some means of manufacturing
enthusiam in tlie breast of a public officer.

Going round where the animals were stabled, Hill
Beachy recognizes the horse and one of the mules as tlu;
property of Magruder; likewise a saddle and canteen,
the former with blood ujjon it, he knows to have buin
Magruder's. Further investigation lixed the identity
of the four passengers. The stage agent now remem-
bers their presence and departure eastward about the
time Magruder went away. As if by inspiration the
whole plot flashes ui)on ^mui. Magruder is murdered
for his money, and the four men are the nmrdertns.
With scarcely a moment's hesitation the stage agent
determines to follow the assassins and bring them to
justice. Without difficulty he tracks them to San
Francisco and secures their arrest.

Says Page in his confession: " Lowry stopped witli
me at this private house on Dupont street; we were
arrested by Captain Lees of the police at this house ;
the other two were at the Lick House. When we
were first arrested we were put into a private room
and guarded closely. Howard was acquainted with
the captain of police; there was an arrangement to
get out a writ of habeas corpus; the captain was to
have all but one thousand dollars; after this we were
all put together so we could tell one talc." The at-
tempt to release the prisoners under a writ of hahen.'i
cor2)us failing after several hearings before the court,
the four men were delivered to the stage agent, who
had been sworn in as deputy-sheriff, and with the as-
sistance of two men who had accompanied him from
Idaho the prisoners were brought back to Lewiston,
where they arrived on the 8th of December, stopping
at the Luna House.

In other times, before and since, these men would
have been seized and hanged by the people before

TRIAL AND EXECUTION.

603

ever they had readied Lcwiston. Within the year
the Lewiston Vif^ihmee Coininittee had executed
three men for a tithe of the present villainy. On this
occasion, as if by common consent, it was resolved to
let the law do the work. They had a new governor,
a new judge, and bright unused court machinery;
of all which they were very proud. They were tired of
stringing and strangling, and were only too ghul that
their great and good uncle at Washington had sent
them these thief-traps and rogue-exterminators, and
now they were curious to see them in operation.
Hence it was when the four prisoners entered town
there was no violent demonstration, and they were
allowed to remain in the stage agent's hands, as a
deputy-officer of the law, during trial.

Previous to the trial Page made a full confession,
which rendered the work of the court easy, and lor
which he was excused from beinir hanjjfed. It is another
of the oddities of law that the punishment of one
of the vilest villains of the gauij: is mitimited as a re-
ward for yet more dastardly meanness, enticed thereto
by the law in the hope of saving himself at the ex-
pense of his comrades. Tried and condemned, though
denying the truth of Page's statement, Howard,
Lowry, and Pomain were executed at Lewiston the
4th of March 18G4. Page was shot by a low charac-
ter at Lewiston the 25th of December 18GG and in-
stantly killed.

When in May 1 8C4 the Idaho Vigilance Committee
suspended active operations tliey summed up the work
accomplished, and found the result to be twenty-seven
thieves and murderers hanged and a gang of despei--
adoes broken up during the year previous. These
had murdered more than a hundred men, besides com-
mitting numerous minor robberies.

The Committee at this time did not disorganize
nor even disband; they merely rested for a time.
But this rest was of short duration. Crime, intimi-

.9'':s

C04

THE POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF IDAHO.

dated for the moment, broke f>ut anew, and the Com-
mittee found it an absohite necessity again actively to
take tlie field. Two years later we hear from them
in tile following incident:

The grand jury reporting at Idaho City in ]May
18()4 found nine bills for nuirder and thirty for assault
with deadly weapons, which for the law was doin<>-
very well in a town so new as to have neither church
noi- school, and, as in the ruby days of California, where;
large and brilliantly lighted gamliling saloons wi;re in
full bhist <lav and nii^ht with loaded tables, revolvers,
and bands of nuisic.

A vigilance committee was formed at Payette Val-
le\' in the winter of 1HG4-5 for the [luqtose of clearing
that neighborhood of the numerous horse-thieves and
gold-dust counterfeiters. A den of these counterfeiters
was broken u[) about the 1st of January, their inij)le-
ments being seized. These consisted of a mill in whicli
they ground their bogus dust, a lot of spelter, and
some crucibles. Five men were ca[)tured. There was
an inunediate scattering of the fraternity in every
direction. Some fled to Auburn, others went over
into the Grande Ronde Valley, and other's crossed the
mountains to Walla Walla. In l»oldness and (lui)licity
the desperadoes of the region round Payette and
Burnt rivers equalled any in the Pacific States. Pack-
trains were frequently waylaid, such of the mer-
chandise taken as the robbers could use, and the mules
driven off. Highwaymen and cattle -thieves often
dressed as Indians and took special care that the
ground about the scene of an on'^laught should be
well covered wi h moccasin tracks. In one of their
camps were fon \d by a surprise party all the para-
phernalia for I 'ian imitation, bows, arrows, toma-
hawks, skins, set, is, and the like.

In Idaho at thi time politics was a sentiment which
affected local int( ests about as much as an Alaskan
north wind afFect: a norther of the Mexican gulf In
the summer of 1865 a gambler, Patterson, a seces-

THE GAMBLER PATTERSON.

GG5

Kionist niul doniofrat, shot an ox-shorilT, Piiikliam, a
union man and ri'puhlican. Tlu; lornicr saved liiniseli'
iVoni |io[tular tiny l»y hnniecliatoly (U'livciin^- liim-
sclf to the law. The jj^rand jury was in session at the
time, but falkul to indict him, and lie was held lor
another jjjrand jury. AFeanwhile the |>e()j»le thought
they saw more politics than justice in the [)rocee(linj^s,
and or<;anized a vi«:filance connnittee for the j)nrjiose
of takinjir Patterson from jail and hani^iuijr him. The
authorities, law and order men, and secession sym-
pathizers rallied to the protection of the prisonei", and
gathered rountl the jail to the number of one hundred
and fifty men, well armed with rifles and i-evolvers.
Opposed to them gathered three hundred aimed
citizens. Each side drew up in battle-array. Tiie
<-itizens occupied the streets leading to the prison and
the hills adjacent. After three days' maiUL'Uvring,
attended by no little brufidii J'lifincn, the peo[>lo with-
drew their forces, leaving the felon-worshipi)eis mas-
ter.s of the situation. Party spirit was the actuating
motive on either side rather than simple love of
justice, and firing once begun, a bloody battle would
have been the inevitable result. In due time the case
was brought to trial; the prisoner was found not
guilty, and, with the congratulations of the judge, was
discharged.

Says the Boise City Statesman of the 3d of Sep-
tember 18G5:

" Wc doubt if the legal annals of any country on the continent can present
a parallel to this state of things. I'eople have ceased to feci that life is pro-
tected by the law; tlicy have ceased to feel that punislinient follows crime;
and hence good men, who wouhl gladly let the law take its coui'se if it could
lie enforced, feel that they must either protect themselves without the forma
of law or they will be a prey to a legal lawlessness worse than mob rule itself.
We know that this is a bod s* .te of things. Wu can realize wliy men feel
driven to the desperate expedient of lynch law, and while we do not approve
we feel hardly able to denounce it.

" There should be no excuse for such things. If men in authority did their
iluty there would be none. It is the abiding conviction of many of the best
men in IJoisii County that the machinery of the courts is but a farce to enable
cruuiiiala to escape. It is uot a thirst for blood on the part of good citizens

THE POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF mAHO.

that leads them to encourage vigilant organization, but it is a desire for justice,
a wish for protection, and a belief that there is no other means for attaining
the end. When men like Patterson are sun'ounJed by a crowd of roughs who
evince a determination to prevent a fair trial according to the form of law,
then the better class cease to respect those forms. It is notorious that Patter-
eon, instead of being treated as any other person charged with crime, is the
recipient of the iinest hospitalities that the jail affords. A fine room, fitted
up in the best style for a gentleman, not inside, but outside the prison, is his
house. Ho is surrounded by guards whom many honest men believe unsafe
and untrustworthy, who they believe intend simply to protect him from his
enemies, and not enforce the law if it should be against him. He walks the
street with a single man at his side, and from whom if he chose ho could
«iscape at any moment. Now if he be entirely innocent, we tell the authorities
it is no way to enforce the law. You bring discredit on yourselves by this
conduct if you are acting in good faith. Treat all criminals alike ; show a dis-
position to enforce the law against all in the same just way, and no one will
suspect your integrity. Show to the people that though a man may have
friends by hundreds banded for his protection, the law shall have due
course, an "hey will cease to complain and organize to execute the law for
themselves."

Up to this time, if we may believe the district at-
torney, within the hmits of Boise County there had
occurred some sixty deaths by violence without a
sinjjle conviction of murder in the first deifree. So
late as January 1866, there was no territorial prison
in Idaho and no prison facilities for the safe-keeping,^
of territorial prisoners other than the provisons that
the county jails of Boisd and Nez Perces should bo
considered such temporarily. Every new community
is obliged at an early date to provide lodgment and
food for its evil-doers; and among the first contribu-
tions the people are called upon to make are those for
the buikMng of some structure, perhaps the most im-
posing in the state, as a caravansary for criminals.
Thus it is that, whether at large or under confinement,
thieves and murderers subsist at the expense of tho
honest and industrious. It is little wonder, then, that
impatient border men should favor short shrift for these
troublesome and expensive vermin. It is a sad coiii-
mentary on human nature that the cry of penitentiary
is heard as among the first necessities of association.
Punishment constitutes the primary pleasure of gov-
ernment.

BOISl!: VIGILANCE

667

David C. Updyke, sheriff and tax-collector of Ada
County, was arrested on the 28th of September 1865,
charged with defrauding the revenue and for failing
to arrest West Jenkins. Alfred Slocum, treasurer of
Boisd County, was arrested in January 1866 for de-
falcation to the amount of about eight thousand dol-
lars. Updyke was soon at liberty, under bonds, but
they were bonds which were easily broken.

The Ada County Volunteers, of which Reuben
Raymond and John C. Clark were members, had re-
cently returned from a raid upon the natives. The
2d of April 1866 a case concerning transportation for
the company was before the court, in which Raymond
testified. Next morning abouu nine o'clock, while
Raymond and another were disputing about the facts
in the evidence, Clark came up, joined in the quarrel,
and soon Raymond gave him the lie. Tliereup(Mi
Clark rushed upon Raymond, who dodged and drew
his pistol. Clark then drew. To some by-standers
who now attempted to interfere, Raymond said,
" Don't be afraid; I am not ijoinij: to shoot."

" Shoot!" cried Clark, '* I'm going to fire."

" I don't want to shoot," returned Raymond; "I'll
give you the first shot."

One would think so magnanimous an offer would
have disarmed any but a venomous reptile. Taking
deliberate aim Clark i)uLv;d the trigger. The cap
snapped without exploding the charge. Again he
repeated the operation, this time witli fatal effect.
Raymond made no attempt to shoot; he received
Clark's ball in the abdomen, and next day died.
Cark was committed for murder.

On the night of the 7th of April, Clark was taken
from the guard-iiouse at Boise City by some twenty
masjiked men and iumgcd just outside the town, upon
a gibbet constructed with three poles. Pinned to one
of the poles was the following notice:

"No. 1.
"Justice has now c')mtnt,.cc(I her righteous work. This suffering com-
muuity, whicli hasj uheaily lain too lung under the ban of rutiiuuiaui, aliall

■J

668

THE POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF IDAHO.

now be renovated of its thieves and assassins. Forbearance has at last ceascl
to be a virtue, and an outraged community has most solemnly resolved on
self-protection. Let this man's fate be a terrible warning to all his kind, fur
the argus eye of justice is no more sure to see than her arm will be certain to
strike. The soil of this beautiful valley shall no longer be desecrated by tlio
presence of thieves and assassins. This fatal example has no ten-or for the
iruioccnt, but let the guilty beware, and not delay too long, and take warning.

"XXX."

Says the Carson Aj^peal of the 28th of April 18GG :

" It will be remembered that Clark was recently committed to answer to
the charge of murdering Reuben Raymond. He was deemed guilty of wilful
murder, and the citizens i^revented his living long to enjoy the achievement,
lie wa.j forcibly taken from prison and executed by men in disguise. Parties
wlio condemned the act and actors soon found their occupation gone. The city
was threatened with fire, and everj'botly thus warned is prepared and will
prevent incendiarism. From all we can learn, if a certain Ijehavior is notice-
able, tlierc will be considerable work for the coroner, undertaker, and sexton
at the capitfd. Wo hear it stated that this is an extension of the Montana
Committee, and that all the through and cross stage lines are favorable to the
organization ; also that leading citizens lend their smiles. In view of the
prompt anil scientific mJinner of execution just adopted in Idaho, men of i'le-
gitimate occupations would do well to reform or emigrate. However wrong
the method of punishment, facts must not lie ignored. It don't change the
real state of facts to charge the vigilants with the conuniasion of the same
crime of which their victims were guilty. The Boist^ites have others in view,
or wliy laljel this subject No. 1 ?"

On Saturday the 1 4th of April 18G6 the body of
D. C. Updyke was discovered at Sirup Creek, hani;-
ing in a shed between two houses, with the following
notice pinned to the body:

"DAVE UPDYKE,

' ' The aider of murderers and horse-thieves.

"XXX."

Next day a few miles down the creek the body of
James Dixon was found hanging to a tree. Monday
morning, posted on Main street, Boisd City, writtou
by the same hand that wrote tlie notice fastened to
the swinging bodies, was the following :

"DAVE UPDYKE,

" Accessoi-y after the fact to tlic Port Neuf stage robbery.
"Accessory and accomplice to the robbery of the stage near Bois^ City iu
18G4.

"Chief conspuator in burning property on the overland stage line.

UPDYKE, DIXON, CLiiRK.

GG9

"Guilty of aiding ind assisting West Jenkins, the murderer, and other
criminals to csoaptj, while you were sheriff of Ada County.
"Accessory and accomplice to the murder of Baymond.
" Tlireatening the lives and property of an already outraged and suffering
community.

"Justice has overtaken you.

"'XXX "
"JAKE DIXON,

" Horse-thief, counterfeiter, and road agent generally.
"A dupe and tool of Dave Updyke.

"XXX."

"All the living accomplices in the above crimes are known through
Updyke's confession, and will surely be attended to.
"The roll is being called.

"XXX."

Commenting upon the execution of Clark, and on
affairs in general, the Idaho Statesman of the 22d of
April says:

"For something more than two years this territory has been ridden and
ruled by both organized and in organized bands of men, who have made high-
way and private robbery, burglary, and murder when necessary for that pir.--
posc, their profession; juries and officers of the courts have been ten'ilied by
their threats from a discharge of their duties, and in some instances they ha\e
succeeded in being elected to offices of trust only to betray the too confiding
public into the hands qf their bloody confederates, or to assist criniinjils to
escape rather than to discharge their duty by bringing them to justice. I'ur-
glary, robbery, and murder were of almost daily occurrence and defied tlctcc-
tion. And when there was a faithful officer to faike tlio track of an odciider,
he soon found his prey so well guarded by confederates that captiiie was all
but an impossibility. And when, as it sometimes liappencd, an arrest was
made, witnesses, jurors, and prosecuting officers were tlireatened witli speedy
death if they dared to go on in the discharge of their duty, to such an extent
that criminal trials have become a mockery. Good citizens liave trembled for
their personal safety for having served on a grand jury. The expn-ss and
stage companies liave been oblige<l to conduct tlicir operations witli the utmost
secrecy to avoid robbery by villains wliom they knew to be daily in tlitir
offices and on their stages watching for opportunities of plunder. If a mer-
chant intended to leave towni on business lie used every precaution to conceal
the time of his departure, so as to lessen th > chances of being roljbed. It is
useless to state what is so notorious a fact, that a nniltitude of llio foulest
nuu'ders have gone entirely unpunished. To such a degree has tlii.s state of
things existed that the law seemed to present no check to whatevcu- outrages
the villains that habitually prey upon society choose to commit. It is tnio
the territory had laws, but a reign t»f teri'or prevented their execution. Space
forbids us to mention the numerous atrocities that make up the long list cf)ni-
niittcd hero in Boisti City. The last one was the deliberate nuirder of ILay-
uioud, because he testified to the truth in a court of law. Before his almost

THE POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF IDAHO.

lifeless bo<ly was rcmovod from the place where he fell, D. C. Updyke stepped
up to a prominent citizen of this place and significantly said, ' That affair
grew out of the lawsuit yesterday, and there will be many more like it.' The
whole tenor of the preliminary examination of Clark gave the ansurance that
tlic same means that had defeated justice so often before were t') be used to
their utmost in this case. That Clark was committed to await trial, and after-
ward seized and executed, is well known. Updyke was most ferocious in hia
threats against several citizens, whom he charged with having a hand in tliu
execution, and finally as he left town announced his intention of returning to
pay Cois(S City one more visit to get even, or to that effect. He has been ex-
ecuted, as also a confederate who went away with him. As to the terror that
has reigned for the last two years, it has come to an end. Good citizens and
peaceable men walk the streets and go about their business in comparative
Kifety. The grand jury that is now in session, when their labors are done,
may disperse without danger of being assassinated for the discharge of their
duty. There is no alarm in the community and no terror for any one excei)t
those who prey upon society and their fellow-men. Such is the exact contli-
tion of afTairs to-day.".

The Idaho World, printed at Idaho City, was the
law and order, democratic, and anti-vigilance organ of
the day. The Idaho Statesman, printed at Boise City,
favored the vigilance party. One saw evil in every
popular movement; the other only good. The death
of P. M. jMcManus, reported as tlje result of the
accidental discharge of his own pistol on the night
of the 8th of August 18G7, is charged directly by the
World upon the Vigilance Committee as a murder.
All in due time it came round, however, that mur-
derers were permitted to pursue their avocations in
peace; so that when, on the 31st of March 18G8, J.
Marion More, the discoverer of Boise Basin, was
killed, the World complimented the people on their
good behavior. The killing of More grew out of a
dispute between the Ida Elmore and the Golden
Chariot mining companies, involving the boundary
lines of the respective claims. In the dispute More
had acted on behalf of the Ida Elmore claim. Mat-
ters were satisfactorily adjusted between the com-
panies; and it was in an after discussion, mingled
with fiery potations, that the killing occurred.

Jimmy Powers, Jimmy Reed, and Jack O'Neal
were taken from prison at Bear River City the night

LAXITY OF LAW.

671

of the 10th of November 18G8. Next morning the
bodies were found suspended from a beam of the build-
ing with a notice pinned to each to the effect that
other garroters of that or other bands if caught would
be similarly treated.

Chung, Kum, and Fung, each with an Ah before
his name, seized a fourth Ah at Grimes Creek in Oc-
tober 1869, whom they claimed had spirited away five
hundred dollars of their earnings, knowledge of the
whereabouts of which they hoped to reach by the
'Melican process of strangulation. A butcher happen-
ing to pass, notice was given of the affair; the Clihia-
man in chancery was released and his tormentors
committed.

In 1870 the Idaho Statesman thus reviews the
annals of crime in that territory for the eight previous
years :

" Four men have been shot to death in Idaho during the last two weeks.
And something like two hundred have been hurried into eternity during the
last eight years at the hands of violence, a large proportion of them downright
murders. Five murderers only have been hanged by the courts in the same
length of time, three of them the villains who killed Magruder, the fourth
Sim Walters, who killed Bacon, the fifth one Anthony McBride, who mur-
dered a Chinaman three years ago. Many of these murderers have gone to
other territories, and in turn got killed or hanged; some have died, some are
scattered about, and the remainder are still in Idaho running at large. One
or two, we believe, by some mismanagement are in prison, but will no doubt
be released at the tenn of court being held at Idaho City. The ratio of
bloody crime is increasing and will increase until the law is more rigorously
enforced."

II !■

M
m

James M.Wood had lain in the Lewiston jail some
six months for the murder of Thomas Dulf(!y, and
had been tried and convicted, when Governor 1 Jallanl
commuted the death sentence to imprisonment for
life. The people, however, frcm tlie first had deter-
mined the man should die. About four o'clock on the
morning of the 13th of January 1870, a body of
armed men disguised as Indians ap})roaclied the
prison, and while some of them quieted the jailer with
their display of pistols, others took the prisoner to

672

THE POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF IDAHO.

the junction of the Clearwater and Snake rivers, and
in an unoccupied building hanged him until dead.
This action on the pai-t of the people was not the re-
sult of momentary exciter, .ent, but of months of cahn
reflection. They felt that a great crime had been
committed, that the man Wood had had a fair trial,
and that the verdict of the jury was just. They could
not therefore see justice robbed by a weak or corrupt
official.

Reviewing the past and surveying the present, the
editor of the Idaho Statesman the 25th of June 1870
writes :

"In all newly settled countries we naturally expect for a while a laxity in
the enforcement of laws and an undue prevalence of crime. Idaho cannot,
or at least should not, be classed under this head. We have Iwen an organ-
ized territory for over seven years. During that period wo have enjoyed
everything allowed by the central govennncnt to 'a territory ; we have our
schools, churches, civic societies, and newspaiters ; we are within i)rompt niul
early communication with the commenntl marta of trade and centres of intel-
ligence, rofmemcnt, and civilization. We have our courts of j 4cc, an ahle
and intelligent bar, jails, and a penitentiary for the reception of malefactors.
T?ut notwithstanding all this, if asked if crime is punished, we are compelled
to answer in the negative. Since the organization of the territory there have
been but two legal executions in the counties of Ada, Boise, Alturas, and
Owyhee. Murders have been so numerous during the same period that v.u
are iniprepared to give the list without consulting the records. We will take,
however, the past year, commencing with July 4, 1809: In the cities of
Silver, LoisiJ, and Idaho, in a little over eleven months, eight murders have
been committed. Of this number four of the pcrpel .vtors were ac(iuitteil ;
one is still confined in jail, trial having been postponed on the plea of insanity,
which, as wo all know, is equivalent to acquittal ; one was convicted of man-
slaughter and sentenced to ten years in tho penitentiary, but jiardoncd after
about two months' confinement, on the petition of numerous citizens of
Owyhee, it having been represented by them to the executive that he had
shot tho wrong man, therefore no crime -was committed, and the killing was
lawful. Another case, a Chinaman, upon being convicted of murder and sen-
tenced to be hanged, comi;.Hted suicide, showing that he concurred with the
verdict of the jury. Shooting and stabbing affrays have also occurred during
the same period, not resulting in death, too trilling, however, to attract the
attention of the people. How does all this appear abroad? Is it calculated to
encourage immigration? Can we expect our fertile valleys to be liUed with an
industrious class of farmers, our cities with intelligent mechanics and arti-
sans? No; such people only emigrate to places where laws arc enforced,
peace and (i[uiet prevail, and life and property are protected.

"Wherein does tho remedy for these evils lie? ChieLy with the court.

"VSH^I

WALTERS AND SIMMS.

073

A judge should go on the beuch tinn and impartial, with the courage uml
learning not only to vindicate the majesty of the law, but also to do justice to
the prisoner, whoever he or she nuiy be. Wc can relate at least one crintinul
trial, of very recent occurrence, in which the unmistakable and unwarrantable
bias of the judge, David Nogglu, had the effect of creating in the mind of tiie
jury a determination to acquit. Again, another evil to be done away with is
the reckless and unthinking manner in which petitions are gotten up in behalf
of convicted felons. A morbid feeling of mistaken friendship in a few awakens
in the breast of the many a sickly sentiment which wrongfully assumes the garb
of mercy, thus indirectly giving encouragement to the further perpetration of
acts of crime. Tliis subject will bear referring to again, aiiu wc shall do it
until the people have awakened to the necessity of a strict enforcement of t!ie
law against those who shed human blood so recklessly."

At Idaho City, at eleven o'clock the 21st of July

1870, the prisoners, seven or eight in number, took
forcible possession of the jail. The keepers were
driven within the grating and confined there; the
prisoners then seized the arms and j)artially made
their escape. The citizens quickly rallied and cap-
tured all but one, Williams, from Owyhee. There was
considerable firing and three were wounded.

There was a man named Walters lyinsf in th(^
Lewiston jail, who, according to the term« of his sen-
tence, should have been executed the i)th of June

1871, but to the indignation of the people the sheriff
failed to perform his duty. Hence it was the Indian
disguise was again assumed by the Committee, and
on the night of the day on which Walters was to
liave suffered, the jail was forced and the prisoner
executed. It seems that the prosecuting attorney had
persuaded the sheriff that the sentence was illegal, and
that it was his duty to disregard it. The gallows had
been erected the day before the execution, but had been
subsequently taken down by friends of the prisoner.

Sirams, a resident of Payette Valley, was hanged
by the people in May 1874 on a charge of fraudu-
lently concealing cattle belonging to a Mrs Ray. .

Pop. Tub., Voi.. I. 43 '

CHAPTER XXXV.

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OP MONTANA.

Tender-handed stroke a nettle,

And it stinga you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,

And it soft as silk remains.
'Tia the same with common natures.

Use 'em kindly, they rebel;
But be rough as nutmeg graters,

And the rogues obey you well

Aaron Hill.

Montana, that is to say montaila, or mountain,
dates its territorial organization May 1864, prior to
which time it was part of Idaho, from the north-
eastern portion of which territory it was mostly taken.
The region is rich in agricultm^al resources as well
as in minerals. More than a quarter of a century
ago the Jesuits founded a mission on the Coeur d'Alene
River, and there taught the savage tribes the gentle
precepts of the Christian faith.

In the spring of 1862, in Deer Lodge Valley and
on Hell Gate River, gold was first discovered within
the limits of this territory. Silver was first found at
Rattlesnake Creek opposite Argenti, and shortly after
at Prickly Pear Creek. The Bannock City or Grass-
hopper mines, on Grasshopper Creek, were discovered
in July of the same year. In Fairweather Gulch, a
rich mining district through which flows Alder Creek,
a, tributary of the Stinking Water, are situated the
•soi-disa7it cities of Virginia, the capital of Montana,
Nevada, and Summit. North of Bannock and Virginia,
at the Prickly Pear mining district, is the town of
Helena. At the Rattlesnake silver mines on Rattle-

(674)

PLUMMER THE SHERIFF.

«::

snake Creek, ten miles north-east from Bannock City,
is Montana City, founded in 1865. For a wilderness,
whose largest settlements can boast no better town
than a huddle of log and board huts, this is a wonderful
country for indigenous cities.

Sheriff of Montana in 1863 was Henry Plummer,
chief of the road agent band. Many and contra-
dictory are the versions given of his early life. He
came to California in 1852, settling for a few years in
Nevada City, where in 1856 he was made marshal.
Before his term of office had expired he was convicted
of the muider of Vcdder, a German, from whom he
had alienated his wife, and was sentenced to ten years'
imprisonment, but on the plea of ill -health was par-
doned by Governor Weller. Another murderous as-
sault, which ultimately proved fatal, and a stage
robbery followed; for the latter he was tried but
acquitted. Now his record of crime becomes rapidly
lengthened; he breaks jail, and assisting in the escape
of Mayfield, another murderer, eventually reaches
Bannock, Montana, where his career ends. He had
eluded pursuit on his way thither through notices
that he himself had published in California papers of
his execution in Washington Territory.

Henry Plummer was not only a most daring man,
but a leader who carried everything before him. In
spite of his established character he secured the elec-
tion for himself as sheriff not only of Bannock but of
Virginia, and the appointments of his road agents
as deputies. Bannock now became the head-quarters
of a noted band of cutthroats and highwaymen.

For a time this worked admirabl}' for the roughs,
as they could rob and murder with impunity. After
they had killed over one hundred and twenty citi-
zens, and plundered stages, express shipments, and
private individuals, no one dared to leave with or
send money or dust out of the country. Any one
who dared to demur to this order of things or sug-
gest that the robbers were other than honest men

111

Mir

676

I'OPULAR TRIBUNALJS OP MONTANA.

and gentlemen, did so at the inuninent peril of lif'u
and fortune.

Under such conditions travellers were entirely at
the mercy of the baud, and while I give some few
details of their crimes, many atrocities were com-
mitted which are unrecorded and unknown. Theii-
system of stage robbery was most complete, as is
illustrated by the following incident: In October 18G'{,
as Peabody and Caldwell's coach was en route for
Bannock, carrying considerable gold-dust and several
passengers, difficulty was experienced in obtaining
horses; two or three times it was found that the
corrals were empty, and men were despatched to hunt
the missing stock. At Dempsey Cottonwood Ranclio,
a rendezvous for Plununer's band, they took up as a
passenger Dan McFadden, better known as 'Bum-
mer Dan'; at Battlesnake Ranclio, which was not
reached till evening, owing to the delay, they found
that here also the horses were turned out. Another
delay of several hours, and then with worn-out teams
the heavy load was again on its way. All this delay
was in furtherance of the plans of the road agents.
Bill Bunton now mounted the driver's seat, ostensibly
to assist with the whip. Before long he left the
driver, Rumsey, to manage the horses alone, and
entering the coach sat beside Bummer Dan. In loss
than five minutes the coach came to a stop; two men,
muffled in hoods and blankets, ordered a " halt," and
with raised rifles and the dialect of a Dutchman told
the driver to " throw up his arms." At the same mo-
ment their accomplices in the stage manifested the
greatest terror, by way of example to the other pas-
sengers; and at the command of the highwaymen
all got out of the stage and threw up their arms.
Bunton begged piteously for life and gave them his
purse, as did also Bummer Dan, while the other pas-
sengers were searched, offering no resistance. In this
robbery twenty-eight hundred dollars were secured
by the band. Frank Parish and George Ives were

A NEST OF THEM.

07:

the two highwaymen in this instance. When the
stage reached Bannock notice was at once given at
Peabody's express office, where George Hildermaii,
another accompHce, was in waiting to ascertain wliether
any one was suspected or recognized. While no mur-
der was at this time comniitted, it would have heen
done if there had been any provocation.

Other .stage robberies followed through the re-
nmindcr of tlio yoai', involving the los.>< of life and
property to a most alarming extent. The culminating
deed was the murder of one Nicholas Ibalt, on the
I3th of Decend)er 1803, who had brought one hun-
dred and fifty dollars to Dempsey's rancho, where he
was to purchase mules for his em|)loyers. His body
was discovered l)y a hunter named Palniev, who shot a
prairie-chicken, which fell among some willows on the
banks of a stream near Dempsey's rancho. J^ilmer,
pursuing his prey, to his surprise and horror stumbled
over the body of Ibalt. It was brought to Ni^vada
and identified. There was great excitement over thi^
tidings, and the first vigilance committee of Montana
was organized that very night, its first work being to
search for the perpetrators of this crime; and at ten
o'clock twenty-five men, who had subscribed to articles
of agreement, left Nevada intent on the capture of
the villains.

Suspicion had fallen on two herders employed by
Dempsey, who had assisted Ibalt in starting, and
who, by reason of their associates, did not enjoy a
very good reputation. They lived in a little hut
about two miles from the house occupied by Mr
Dempsey and family. On visiting this hut of the
lierders, there were found Long John, or as his .M\otlu!r
would say, John French, George Hilderman, Whiskey
Bill, Texas Bob, George Ives, and Alexander Carter :
a full nest of them.

All were arested and taken to Nevada City, Mon-
tana, where on the 19th of December a new tribunal
was organized, composed of twelve representatives.

078

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

all from Junction City and Nevada districts. The
regularly appointed judges, Wilson and Byam, of the
two districts were called upon by the miners to pre-
side. According to miners logic the men were made
judges by the miners, the office they filled, if not the
judges themselves, belonged to the miners, and thoy
must obey the miners or abdicate. But the judges
had no thought of taking exceptions to the action ol'
the people.

Twelve from each district were selected to act as
jurors, and the trial of George Ives began. Messrs
Smith, Richie, Thurmond, Colonel Wood, and Mr Alex-
ander Davis were Ives' lawyers, while Colonel Sanders
and Charles S. Baggs conducted the prosecution. John
French turned state -evidence, and the others, witli
the exception of Hilderman, were released, an action
which the people ever after regretted. During the
trial, which was conducted in the open air and con-
tinued two days, the sale of intoxicating drink was
prohibited throughout the town, a wise and praise-
worthy measure.

A two days' trial was a long one for the impatient
miners, who had their own affairs to attend to; and
while they were desirous everything should be done
in a lawful manner, they were beginning to tire of dis-
putatious formalities. Proceedings were narrowly
watched by the officers of the Vigilance Committee,
and during the second day they quietly informed the
court that at three o'clock the trial must be concluded,
and directed the court to instruct the counsel on
either side that in their arguments before the jury
they would be restricted to cue hour each. After a
half hour's consideration the jury reported twenty-
three for hanging and one tor acquittal.

Ives was a man of about twenty-five years of ag(3,
with blue eyes and liglit hair. His manner was
sprightly and absolutely fearless. Now, however,
confronted with the deeds of his past life, and death
imminent, he begged for time. "How much time did

A FORMIDABLE BAND.

079

you give the Dutchman?" inquired Colonel Sanders.
By this time day had departed, and silver light had
superseded golden. The prisoner had many friends
among the attendants, and these were belligerent on
hearing the verdict. Menacing forms and scowling
visages cast weird, imperfect shadows on the disturbed
ground, and pistols, guns, and knives gleamed in the
moonlight. But all was of no avail.

In an unfinished house the scafFokl was erected, a
large box answering as platform. This building,
which had only the frame standing, was within ten
yards of where the trial had been conducted; and
here the sentence was executed.

Hilderman's trial was soon over. He was an old
man, evidently a tool of the band, without courage
to divulge what he knew, equally in terror of his con-
federates and of th3 Vigilance Committee. He was
considered somewhat imbecile, and his sentence was
banishment from Montana.

John French having turned informant, and having
given sufficient evidence to warrant the conviction of
Ives, was set free. His testimony was corroborated
by Hilderman. Ives protested, even on the scaiSbld,
that he did not commit the crime of which he was
accused, charging it on one Alexander Carter; but
his assertions carried little weight. Even if true, there
were yet unatoned sins enough at his door to war-
rant abode in airy space — so thought the Committee.
Nevertheless the words of the departing Ives did not
fall on heedless ears, that is to say, so far as the ap-
prehension of further villainy was concerned. During
their imprisonment they informed their captors that
their organization at that time, 1864, numbered one
hundred and thirty, who had killed and robbed over
one hundred men, principally between Salt Lake City
and the Montana mines.

Two lawyers, Smith and Thurmond, were driven
from the territory by the exasperated people for at-
tempting to clear the banditti when arrested. Dims-

i.;'i^

i.'ii'

680

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

dale, writing of them, says: "They were employed as
counsel of the road agents, and were banished. Thur-
mond brought an action at Salt Lake against Mr
Fox, charging him with aiding in procuring his ban-
ishment. After some peculiar developments of justice
in Utah he judiciously withdrew all proceedings, and
gave a receipt in full of all past and future claims on
the vigilants, in which instance he exhibited a wise
discretion." It seemed to the people sufficient that
the road agents should be permitted to accomplish
their vile purpose unrestrained by law, without having
the law interposed between them and justice by re-
leasing them as fast as caught. That jurists should
be obliged to admit the necessity, in criminal juris-
prudence, which makes it the <luty of the counsel to
clear the guilty if it be possible, certainly augurs ill
for the system. At all events it is a [practice which
border communities cannot afford to indulii^e in.

The Vigilance Committee was now strong enough
to excite in Plummer's band fears for their lives. It
was understood among them that pursuit was to lie
made for Ives' comrades; and brave indeed were the
twenty-four citizens who undertook this perilous duty.
Mr Dimsdale, writing of this expedition, says: "Tlie
volunteers formed a motley group: but there were
men enough among them of unquestioned courage,
whom no difficulty could deter and no danger affright.
They carried generally a pair of revolvers, a shot-gun,
blankets, and some ropr. Spirits were forbidden. On
the 23d of December 1803 the party, on horse and
mule back, went by way of Stinking Water to the Big
Hole, and over the divide in the main range. The
weather was very cold, and there was a large quantity
of snow upon the ground. Fires could not be lighted
when wanted at night, for fear of attracting attention,
and the men were but ill prepared to face the chilling
and stormy blast which swept over the hills and val-
leys crossed by them on this arduous journey. Few
know the hardships they encountered."

PLUMMER'S BAND.

On Deer Lodge Creek, Erastus Yager, generally
known as Red, was encountered. He was one of the
band, but preserved his incognito so well that he
threw the vigilants off their track, and had abundance
of time to notify his comrades of their approach; so
that when they reached Cottonwood their prey had
escaped. For two days it snowed heavily. "The cold
became fearful," says Mr Dimsdale, "and the suffer-
ings of the party were intense. Some of the stock
stampeded to the canon out of the way of the storm.
It was no small job to hunt up the runaways."

On reaching Rattlesnake they surrounded a rancho,
where Plummer's men, Stinson and Ray, who were
deputy-sheriffs, had Red under arrest, as they said,
for horse-stealing, but would now release him on liis
promise to return to Bannock City. The vigilants
pursued and captured him, and took him (mi to Demp-
sey's rancho, whore a portion of their force awaited
them. Here they made a second arrest of one Brown,
secretary of the association. He was held to await
Red's trial.

The men were taken to Lorraine's, where they ar-
rived during the afternoon. At ten that night tJie
trial commenced. Red turned informer, and fully
described the whole or<janization of the road agfents.
He said that Plununer was chief of the band and
Bunton was second in command; that the members
were Cyrus Skinner, (reorge Ives, Stevens Marshland,
Dutch John, or John Wagner, Aleck Carter-, Whiskey
Bill, or Bill Graves, (jlforge Shears, Johnny Cooper,
Buck Stinson, Ned ICay, Mexican Frank, Boone
Helm, Club-foot (Jeorge, or George J^ane, Haze
Lyons, Bill Hunter, (Toorge Lowry, Billy Page, Doc
Howard, Jem Romainc, Billy Terwilliger, and Gad
Moore. They had as a jmssword ' Innocent,' wore
nmstache and chin whiskers, and a sailor's knot as a
necktio.

li:/^ two men. Red and Brown, were taken to a
tree on Lorraine's rancho and side by side were swung

ili'?

§11

Ill

682

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

into eternity. Previous to his execution Red had
implored that the rest of the band should be punished,
which was readily promised, and the pledge kept.
He also said, "You have treated me like a gentleman,
and I know I am going to die; I am going to be
hanged; it's pretty rough, but I merited this years
ago." And with the rope around his neck his last
words were, "Good-by, boys; God bless youl You
are on a good undertaking."

The bodies were left suspended for their comrades
to care for. On one was fastened the label "Red,
Road Agent and Messenger;" on the other, "Brown,
Corresponding Secretary."

Says a resident in relation to recent affairs in
Montana :

' ' The aforesaid excitement began at the Stinking Water mines, but soon
exteT" jed to this place, and men are going and coming all the time between
the several mining localities, as well as between Deer Lodge, Big Hole, Hell
Gate, Bitter Root Valley, and Gallatin. I hope not to be understood by tlio
word excitement alone, that those men have been hanged by an excited and
unruly mob. I will say to their credit, though myself a lover of law and
order, that a more sober, quiet, and determined assemblage of citizens witli
the law in their own hands I never saw. At one time in Bannock, just alter
the killing of a worthy citizen and wounding of another, while trying to
arrest the Spaniard Frank, well known around Camp Douglass, the crowd
were so exasperated that they tore to the ground the house in which Fnmk
was found and killed, carried it away from the other buildings, threw the
Spaniard on top of it, and burned all together. The people had an especial
dislike for the house, as it belonged to Henry Plummer, and was occupied by
Buck Stinson. It was there the Spaniard secreted himself, and killed a good
man and wounded another while he was bein^" arrested. The Spaniard was
killed on the 11th. George W. Coply, who was shot by the Spaniard, died
on the r2th, and was followed to his grave by almost the entire population.
Smith Ball, who was wounded at the same time, is out of danger. ''

These men Coply and Ball were members of the
Vigilance Committee, and were shot by the man
whose capture they were attempting. He is spoken
of elsewhere as Joe Pizanthia, " the greaser," which
was probably his name. It was a mob, not the Vigil-
ance Committee, which in a frenzy executed its venge-
ance in this way.

EXECUTIONS.

The next arrest was that of John Wagner, or
Dutch John. He was brought mto Bannock and
imprisoned in an empty cabin until his fate should
be determined. A vigilance committee was at once
organized, and none too soon, as a communication was
brought them that very ni^ht by four trustworthy
citizens from the Virginia vigilants with an order for
the arrest and execution of Plummer, Stinson, and
Ray. These ruffians were then in Bannock, whither
they had come preparatory to leaving the country.
The committee knew there was no time to lose, and
arrested the men, whom they found in different houses,
apparently unconcerned about their fate. They wore
taken without delay to their place of execution, which
was a cross-beam in an unfinished building. Their
cries and curses broke the stillness of the niijht.

The great leader, Henry Plummer, begged hard for
his life, cried like a child, asked to be chained down,
offered to leave the country forever, and declared
that he was tivo wicked to die. In his i>ossession was
found a papei' describing the band, giving an account
of their movements and their future plans. This
document contained the names of eighty members of
the foul fraternity whose extermination the C*ommittee
were earnestly at work to accomplish. Plummer was
the most notorious of Montana desperadoes, and his
organization the most powerful of early times.

TiiC (.;ase of John Wagner was now considered by
! :i(} Ciiiiniittee, and it was unanimously decided that
h .shv'uld be hanged as a highwayman and robber for
hL villainies of the past four years. A committee
ot oi.^ was appointed to notify him that he would be
led to execution within an hour. At first his trepi-
dation was extreme; he begged that they would
punish him in any other way. ''Cut off my legs and
arms," he said, "and let me go; you know I could do
nothing then." His native courage did not desert him
ultimately, and the bravery he exhibited when on the
J allows excited the sympathy of his executioners. He

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OP MONTANA.

was led to the building where his comrades had been
executed, and saw their stiffened bodies ready for
burial. He gazed at them stolidly; a few hours later
and he was laid beside them.

On the morning of the 14th of January 1864 the
vigilants of Virginia were to be seen fully armed and
stationed in all directions so as to prevent the egress
from the place of any one; at the same time volun-
teers from the neighboring vicinity were gathering in
the main streets. Boone Helm, Jack Gallagher, Frank
Parish, Haze Lyons, and George Lane, or Club-foot
George, wliose arrests had been accomplished, were
pinioned mikI brought in front of the Virginia Hotel
and arrau ( ' ' ; a row. They each confessed sepa-
rately to crii but none of them gave any full con-
fession. They were taken to a building just being
erected on the corner of Wallace and Van Buron
streets, where the main beam running across the build-
ing answered admirably the purpose of the Committee.
Here the five were executed. Haze Lyons and Stin-
son, who was hanged at Bannock, had been tried in
Virginia by a legal court in June 18G3, on the charge
of the murder of Dillingham, and were acquitted.
Lyons confessed to this murder now.

At their arrest and execution their various charac-
teristics were freely displayed. Ja '• Gallagher aii-
peared to treat the matter as a joke at first, but when
fully satisfied as to its reality, cursed vehemently.
While standing below the gallows he used continual!}'
the most profane language. His last words were, "I
hope that forked lightning will strike every one of
you." Boone Helm, looking at the muscular contor
tions of Gallagher, said, "Kick awa}^ old fellow; I'll
be in hell with you in a minute. Every man for his
principles. Hurrah for Jeff Davis! Let her rip!"
Other incidents are recorded in regard to the last
hours of all these men, but they are too revolting to
repeat.

Boone Helm had emigrated from Missouri in the

BOONE HELM.

6Sff

early part of 1 8 50. Ho had committed a murder there,
and had been pursued and brought before a court.
After the third postponement of his trial he was set
free, and coming to ( ^alifc^rnia is said to have killed a
dozen men on these western shores. He was abimt
forty years of age at the time of his execution. He
seemed to be one of the most hardened of these des-
peradoes, without one redeeming quality. One of the
first incidents mentioned of him in the territories is
when, at Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858, he
was in company with one Powell who liad been
trading with tlie Fhxtheads. Helm left The Dalles
the autumn previous for Salt Lake in compari}' with
seven gamblers, v 'irrying all the necessary implements
of their professioa, uud a race-horse which was to beat
anything in Utah. It was a short cut to that .land
where no stranglers are, and all of them r(\ached it
on the way except Helm. After four days' tight with
natives a snow-storm set in, in which six of the villains
perished, Helm shooting the last one, who had become
snow-blind, for food. Soon after reaching Utah, Helm
joined Johnson and Harrison's band of horse-thieves,
made raids into California, and stole animals from the
overland company and the militar}'. At Lodi the
quartermastei, recognizing and attempting to arrest
him, received a ball in the head. Next we find Helm
at Los Angeles, where he robbed a store -keeper;
then we hear of him at the Salmon River mines
shooting a man one Sunday afternoon tor refusing to
drink with him. He then escaped to Cariboo, where
a life of violence soon made the country too hot to
hold him. Between the Quesnelle and Antler Creek
he assisted at the killinu' and robbing of three traders.
Then making his way to the Bannock nnnes, he con-
tinued his evil course until the people in self-defence
rose and hanged him.

On the 15th of January twenty-four men lefi,
Nevada intent on the arrest of the remainder of the
band. The first day's march brought them to Clarke's

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

rancho, where Steve Marshland was found in bed
and captured. His feet were frozen and he was
wounded, as the Committee already knew from the
confessions of his associates. He was brought out of
his hut and hanged immediately. On the next after-
noon, at Deer Lodge Creek, another halt was made,
and Bill Bunton was next arrested. He attempted
resistance, but was unable to cope with his plucky
captors. He was taken to a house in the neighbor-
hood, where the vigilants passed the night and break-
fasted. Another detachment arrested one Tex. As
Bunton 's guilt was unquestioned, he was speedily ex-
ecuted not two hundred and fifty feet from the house.
Tex was banished from the country, though afterward
testimony enough against him was obtained to have
cost him his life.

Skinner and Alex Carter were next secured at Hell
Gate. Carter was stupid from drink ; when he recov-
ered his senses and was told of the convictions and
executions he said, "All right; not an innocent man
hung yet." These men were taken to Higgins' store,
Vvhcre after an examination of three hours sentence of
death was passed on them. Both of these men were
noted criminals. George Ives had accused Carter of
the murder of Ibalt. Carter denied that charge, but
said he was accessory to the crime, and told where
the mules were which belonged to Ibalt.

It w^as said of Carter that when he left the east it
was with an unblemished reputation; that he had been
trusted in money transactions, and deserved the con-
fidence of his employers. Here in INIontana all was
different, and evil associates sealed liis doom.

Skinner was of a very different stamp. He was a
saloon-keeper in Idaho, of a l^lood- thirsty tempera-
ment, and had always had a bad reputation. He
endeavored to run from his captors in order to be
shot rather than hanged, but his object was easily
thwarted.

A small detachment started off for Bitter Root

MORE CAPTURES AND EXECUTIONS.

687

Valley ill pursuit of Bill Graves or Whiskey Bill.
He was captured with but little difficulty. Placed on
horseback, with a vigilant in front of him, he was
taken under a tree, when he was given an opportunity
to make confession, which he refused. The rope being
adjusted, the vigilant suddenly put spurs to the horse,
and as the animal plunged, Bill Graves was thrown
from his seat, and quickly swung lifeless in the air.

Skinner and Carter were executed at Iliggins'
corral. The people had dug their graves, and at mid-
night witnessed the execution by the fitful light of
their torches. Johnny Cooper, a lieutenant of the
band, who had been wounded by Carter in a recent
quarrel, unable to walk, was brought in a sleigh to
his place of execution, and hanged on the same spot
where his comrades had expiated their crimes.

Eight men were sent the same night in pursuit of
Bob Zachary and George Shears. As one of the
vigilants entered the house where Zachary was, he
found him sitting up in bed, and throwing himself
upon him, held him down until the others were able
to pinion him securely. George Shears, although
armed, made no resistance, and from the time of his
arrest maintained the utmost indifference to his fate.

On the authority of Dimsdale, "Shears addressed
his captors at the time of his execution in the follow-
ing unique phraseology: 'Gentlemen, I am not used
to this business, never having been hung before.
Shall I jump off or slide off?' Being told to jump off,
he said 'All right!' and leaped into the air with as
much sang-froid as if bathing."

Zachary was also executed, within an hour after his
arrest.

At the time of the execution in Virginia of Boone
Helm and four others, another criminal, Bill Hunter,
was a marked man, but he effected his escape for the
time being. Now was his capture determined upon,
and after severe exposure and many difficulties he was
found in a cabin about twenty miles from the mouth

688

POPULAR TRIBUN.VLS OF MONTANA.

of the Gallatin, where he had taken refuge from a
heavy snow-storm. During the intervening time he
had kept himself coneealed during the day, seeking
food at night. He was immediately exeeuted, the
3d of February, on a lone tree near the cabin, in
full view of travellers on the trail, so that his asso-
ciates might find his body and take warning. This
was the last execution of any of Plummer's band.
The reign of terror was now over.

In February 1864 the Montana Vigilance Con)-
mittce comprised over one thousand members, exer-
cising sway over the country round the settlements
of Virginia, Bannock, and Nevada City, and far be-
yond.

Almost every one of the several hundred embryo
cities of the western coast, at some period of their early
history, and many of them at many difteront times,
have been cursed with a town rowdy, who, full of
bi'avado and fiery drink, licavily armed \vitli bowie-
knife, six-shooter, and gun, usually with a few fol-
lowers at his lieels, stalked the streets, making day
disaijrccablc and nij^ht liideous. Ho is not such as
life-insurance .-agents seek as a risk; for once filled
with the ambition for acquiring villainous distinction,
his career is usually of short duration. He is the
foolish miller of the mining towns, who flutters for a
moment in the polluted light of self-extinguishing
vice, then drops besotted into the flame.

Such a one was J. A. Slade, well known in Vir-
ginia City, Montana, in the spring of 1864; a man
well conditioned so far as the world goes, for he had
a good wife and a fine rancho on the Madison branch
of the Missouri River. He had lived for many years
in Clinton, Illinois, respected on account of his fam-
ily and for his own good qualities. Subsequently his
character changed; and when he came west it was as
a fugitive from his native state, for he had killed a

SSLADK THE DESPER.VDO.

(IMJ

man in a quarrel, and was jjursucd by a Hlioriff [\)i'
several hundred unless. In Virginia he gave little at-
tention to business, ior he was two thirds ot" his tinit.*
in town, where he would drink and carouse with his
companions, to the neglect of family and property.
His boldness in crime intimidated the officers of the
law, for he openly detied them. Once when he was
known to be sober the Vigilance Connnittee sent him
word that unless he bettor regarded the public peace,
which sliould be preserved at all hazards, he nmst
suffer the consequences of his evil ways With his
usual fool-hardihood he disregarded the warning and
continued his practice of abusing law-abiding citizens,
in several instances going so far as to even slap tlieui
in the face, and threaten in his expressive language
"to bore them thi-ough" if they offered to oppose his
])layful wickedness.

On the 8th of March two houses kept by women
were entered at night by Naylor Thom[)s<)n, Harden,
tSlade, and others, who a[)|)ro[)riale(l whatever tliey
could make available, malieioiisly deniolisliing evei-y-
thing else. The pr()})riet()r of one of the ])laces,
called ]\[o]l Featherlegs, brought a suit before Judge
Davis to recover damages. The suit was j)rosc(aited
by the best talent, and a jury of twelve miners formed,
who feared not to act upon the testimony On the
morning following these depredations, Sladc and his
companions were unusually c(Miibative'. They were
frenzied with liquor, and defied any one U) prosecute
them. Slade walked the streets with his comrades,
freely using the most abusive language to any with
whom he happened to come in contact. An attenq)t
was made to arrest them, but seizing the waiiants
they destroyed them, and roamed and roared as usual
until other warrants could be obtained. Threatening
vengeance to the court, Slade called at Jud^e Davis"
office, flung at him insulting epithets, and told him in
a most insinuating way that some men's days were
numbered. Then he walked away and entered a

Poi'. Tiun., Vol. I. 41

GJO

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

certain house. He had been there but a short time
when it was surrounded by a company of three hun-
dred men, members of the Vigilance Committee.
They were all armed, and acted with preconcerted
method, placing a guard about town, and fully pre-
paring for resistance. This was about four o'clock in
the afternoon; bu.siness generally was suspended, and
though no excitement was exhibited the streets were
filled with people in a hushed state of expectancy.
Few knew who was to be arrested. A strong forcd
then entered tlic building and took Slade prisoner
with but little resistance. He was marched down
the street to a rnvino, wliere to his dismay he saw a
newly erected gallows prepared for him. As death
stared him in tho face he was cowed; his defianot'
was now changed into piteous supplication; he ner-
vously glanced about him only to behold the hills,
streets, and liouse-tops covered with men, women,
and children, who to witness his execution had thus
<'()me together. The prisoner begged that he might
see his wife; this request was denied, and he was
ordered to mount the scaffold. Ten minutes weri'
then given him in which to prepare for death. He
asked permission to speak with Judge Davis, lawyer
Sanders, and others. Judge Davis responded, wlieii
the prisoner begged most beseechingly that he would
entreat the people to believe in his innocence, and
that instead of taking his life allow him to leave the
country, and he would go anywhere they directed.
Judge Davis told him that he was powerless to help
him. Again he urged that he should be allowed time
to see his beloved wife before he died. A message
had been sent to her an hour previous, but of this
fact the Conmiittee was ignorant. The I'ope was ad-
justed, and feeling confident that his death was now-
certain, his fixce turned deadly pale and his trembling
legs could scarcely support him. His cries for his
wife now became more vehement; he must see her, he
jsaid, to arrange some business matters. Again as his

ARRIVAL OF MRS SLADE.

armH wore bound he cried, "For God Almighty's
sake, let me see my beloved wife I" The crowd became
greatly excited; the strongest emotion was exhibited,
and cries of "Let him see his wife!" emanated from
every quarter. A rush for the gallows was imminent,
and a fight was only prevented by the sudden levelling
of three hundred guns upon the turbulent mass that
now tossed like an angry sea. A subdued quiet
quickly followed, broken only by the continued appeals
of the prisoner, which were now unavailing. His
immediate execution was determined upon ; for if
they relented and allowed him extra time he might
be rescued by his friends. With eyes unblinded the
trap was sprung, and the man fell thirty inches, the
toes just touching the ground. After hanging fc»r
half an hour the body was taken down and conveyed
to the Virginia Hotel.

The crowd was slow to disperse; no complaints
were uttered aloud except by Naylor Thompson,
Slade's late companion in iniquity, whose threatenings
of vengeance were silenced by tlu! guard, who marched
him to the gallows and would have executed him but
for the I'cmonstrance of the by-standers. He was lib-
erated with the understanding that he should be ban-
ished from the country.

The excitement consequent upon his arrest and
release had scarcely subsided when Mrs Slade drove
up to the hotel, and alighting was conducted to the
room where the body of her husband lay. It was
scarcely half an hour since he had been carried from
the gallows, and not until Mrs Slade entered the
apartment did she receive knowledge of his death.
Her grief seemed overpowered for the moment in
thinking of the manner of his taking- off, and she
prayed that God's vengeance would descend upon tb'
murderers of her husband. She asked why some
one did not shoot him instead of suffering him to die
a felon's death. The sympathy of the community was
with her, for she had always borne an excellent repu-

(IV •
il-;; .

«1)2

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

tjition among u largo circle of acquaintances. At lior
request the body was temporarily interred in the vil-
lage cemetery, and afterward removed to Illinois.

Dimsdale, writing of Captain Slade, says, "There
are probably a thousand individuals in the west pos-
sessiniT » correct knowledge of the leading incidents
of a career that tci-minatcd at the gallows, who still
speak of Slade as a perfect gentleman, and who not
only lament his death, but talk in the highest terms
<jf his character, and pronounce his execution a mur-
der. One way of accounting for this diversity ol"
opinion regarding Slade is sufficiently obvious: Those
who saw him in his natural state only, would pro-
nounce him to be a kind husband, a most hospitable
liust, and a courteous gentleman. On the contrary,
those who met him when maddened with liquor and
surrounded by a gang of armed roughs would pro-
nounce liim a fienil incarnate." Again ho says, "Cap-
tain Slade was tlie idol of liis follower's, the terror of
his enemies and t)f all that were not within the
charmed circle of his dependents. In him ijjcnerositv
and destructiv'eness, brutal lawlessness and courteous
kindness, lirm friendshi[) and volcanic outbreaks of
fury, were so mingled tliat he seeiin,! like one boi'ii
out of date. He should liave lived in leudal times.
In modern times he stands almost alone."

Time was when a stage arriving in safety was a
matter for tjeneral coni^ratulation. For a traveller to
run this gauntlet of highwaymen without disturbance
one would think almost an unusual occurrence. But
the war of extermination was conducted with vigor.
James Brady, early in the summer of 18G4 living at
Nevada City, shcjt one Murphy, whom the physicians
declared could not live. The people argued in this
wise : If with malice prepense Brady points a weapon
at Murphy and fires, is not Brady equally guilty
whether the shot proves fatal or not? The law said
no; the people said yes. Murder was in the heart, in

WHIPPING AND IIAXOING.

e«i

the mind, in the cyi; and finger of Bimly, and ho is
very whit a murderer as much witli Murphy livinj^
as with Murphy dead. Certain absurdities are essen-
tial to law. And this is one of them: that if the l)all
strikes a rib and so is turned from its deadly errand,
tlio crime is called by one name; if it strikes l)ut a
trifle higher or lower, tlie crime is called bv another
name. Yet the purposi; was one, and the ])unisliment,
if the law was perfect in its action, would be iine. The
law, however, is obliged to judge; intentions from re-
sults; and lierein tiie law is deficient.

Brady was i)roprietor of a drinkmg-saloon. Wiicn
he saw what he had done ho throw away his weapon
and lied, but was soon overtaken l)y officers of tlie
A'^iijilance Committee and bi-oULrht back to town. The
ne.\t moi-ning he was tried by tlie j)eopl(' and sentenced
to die. Five tliousand persons witnessed Brady's ex-
ecution. He was marched to the gallows just outside
the town by a guar<l of two hundred vigilants.

J(;ni Kelly, Brady's barkeeper and assi^.ant in the
shooting, was present at the trial and execution of his
friend, and was himself adjudged deserving of fifty
lashes on his bare back, which punishment was in-
flicted in an unfinished house near by. Afterward
Kelly took to the road, and, as will bo seen, pur.suod
his evil career. In July a coach was robbed between
Virginia and Salt Lake. A party of ^Montana vigil-
ants set out in pursuit of the robbers. Learning that
Kelly was implicated in the robbery, and that he had
been indulging in other irregularities, thcv finallv
succeeded in catching him on Snake River, and after
a trial he was hanged. His chief regret seemed to be
in having to suffer two punishments, whipping and
hanging.

At Salt Lake City in August f 864 one John Dolan
was brought before the provost marshal for examina-
tion on a charge of having stolen some seven hundred
dollars from James Redmond of Virginia, Montana.

694

POl'ULuVll TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

The prisoner had been arrested by John McGrath, an
executive officer of the Montana Committee of Vigil-
ance, then embracing nearly all of the better class of
inhabitants of the territory.

As a matter of course, the man had been arrested
without process of law ; McGrath had no warrant for
his custody. He was present at the examination,
as was also Featherstone, deputy- sheriff of Madison
County, Montana. After hearing the statements of
both sides, the provost marshal decided that he had
no jurisdiction in the matter. There had been no-
where filed any affidavit alleging offence. No warrant
had issued from any legally constituted body. He
.simply found himself in charge of a man against whom
no proceedings had been taken. If the prisoner had
committed any offence, continued the judge, either in
this or in an adjoining territory, the proper course
would have been to have taken him before the civil
authorities, who upon application would have issued a
warrant for his arrest and transportation to the proper
place for trial. Such proceedings having been neglected,
the provost marshal decided that he had the authority
neither to hold the man nor to deliver him to either
of the applicants for his custody, which applicants
were the civil authorities of Madison County and the
Vigilance Committee of Montana, by their respective
officers. It was therefore ordered that John Dolan
be discharged from the custody of the provost guard.

This was done. The law acknowledged its impo-
tency, and let loose one of a class who were preying
upon the vitals of a large and widely scattered com-
munity. Not so the Vigilance Committee. There
were more members of the association at that time
in Salt Lake City than McGrath. Dolan had not
proceeded far from the precincts of the law which
had treated him so kindly, when he was seized and
thrust into an outward-bound stage, which carried
him back to the scenes of his irregularities and to tlie
custody of those less trammelled by forms of justice.

DOLAN, SLATEE, KEENE.

C9.>

They arrived at Nevada on the 16th of September.
His trial was a lengthy one, but his guilt was conclu-
sively proved, so that his confession was only in con-
firmation of what was already known. He offered to
make good to Redmond his loss if the Vigilance Com-
mittee would release him. Three hundred dollars had
already been recovered. The sentence pronounced by
the Committee was death by hanging, and was carried
into effect at sundown of Saturday evening, the 17tli
of September, in the presence of thousands of people
assembled from neighboring districts. Immediately
after the execution of Dolan the remaining sum of
four hundred dollars was collected and handed ovei- to
Redmond, so that by the death of the miscreant he
should not be defrauded of the money. "An act of
scrupulous honesty, probably never before paralleled
in any citizens' court in the world," says Dimsdale.

Before the arrest of Dolan letters had been re-
ceived informing the Committee that he was an asfsu-
ciate of Kelly who was hanged at Snake River, and
accessory to many crimes.

Henry Slatei- was a rough of reputation. In Utah
and Nevada he was well known, too well known for
his own comfort; so when diggings were discovered
at Last Chance Gulch, on the edge of Prickly Pear
Valley, near where now is the town of Helena, he
was the first to cast in that camp his evil lot.

At Salt Lake he would have shot Colonel W. ¥.
Sanders in the back had he not been prevented by
by-standers. For this and many other outrages he
would have died had he not saved his life by suil-
den flight from Virginia. John Keene was likewise
a bad man. He was once baikceper for Samuel
Schwab at Virginia. He too came to Helena, not
for the purpose of curbing liis evil propensities, but
that he might the more unrestrainedly indulge them.
Between Slater and Keene a feud had long existed.
Neither knew that the other was in town, when one
day as Slatei* was sitting in front of a saloon with his

696

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

hat drawn over his face Keene came along, looked at
him sharply for a moment, and then without a word,
drew his pistol and planted two balls in Slater's body,
which ended forever that desperado's career. Keene
was arrested, and in the absence of a jail, the sheriff
confined him in his house. A crowd gathered. Prom-
inent among its expressions of feeling was that of
disgust. Taking the prisoner from the sheriff they
marched him into a lumber-yard near by, appointed a
jury, and proceeded to try him. The trial lasted far
into the night, a strong guard meanwhile being Icept
round the piisoner. Finally he was found guilty and
executed. Thus the camp was cleared of two of its
most venomous inhabitants.

This was the first execution in Helena; the prisoner
was hanged fiom a tree in Dry Oulch, wliich after-
ward served that purpose repeatedly for thieves and
murderers in the northern part of the country.

John Keene was also known as Bob Black. In tlie
Memphis Appeal of November 24, 1865, is an article
giving an accoimt of an unparalleled <'ataloguc of
crime, of which Bob Black was the hero. After "a
career of desperation and crime, which if given in its
details woiild cause the blood-thirsty tf\lcs of the
yellow-covered trasli to pale for their very puerility
and tameness, he escaped from Memphis, and with a
couple of accomplices began a system of wholesale
murder and lobbery on the Hernando road. The
atrocity and boldness of these acts created tlie greatest
excitement in Memphis." After leaving that city
Kelly went to Miimesota under his own name. Be-
fore long he organized a band of twenty men and
transferred his depredations to a wider sphere through-
out the territories.

Writin«)f from Montana one savs:

"A few rods Houtli of Helena, and just west of the present overland staj,'(-!
road where it trussed Dry Guluh, and directly in the gulch, there stands ii
venerable pine, whoso massive lower brandies of weird and fantastic growth
extend twenty feet or more from tiie gnarled and moss-covered trunk. Years
■ince it lost its foliage, and now it is gradually yielding to decay, and ere long

THE HISTORIC PINE.

697

a clotl of vegetable mould will alone remain to mark the site of the famona
hangman's tree. Could the old pine speak, what tales it could tell ! But perhaps
'tis best that speech is not given, and that with the life of the old tree should
pass the recollection of those early days when, forbearance having ceaaeil to bo
a virtue, a short shrift and a hempen cord became necessary to rid tlic country
of the desperadoes that infested it, and thus secure long needed protection to
lives and property of honest citizens. Now law and order reign throngliont
the territory, and justice is attainable and administered througli regular
channels, and it is to be hoped that never again will circumstauces call for or
justify the formation of such an organization aa was that of the Vigilance
Committee."

During a long and successful career of twelve
years' duration, Jacob Seachriest, sometimes called
Jake Silvie, had practised brigandage. Ho counted
his uuirdors at the rate of one a year, that is to say
twelve in all. Shortly after Koene's execution Sea-
chriest was arrested at Diamond City upon divers
charges, which, when his arrest was known at Helena,
were greatly multiplied. The Helena vigilants then
took the matter in charge, brought the prisoner to
town, and confined him in the same r-abin whtn-c
Keene's last night was spent. Thence hv was taken,
after trial and condemnation, to the histori" tree in
Dry Gulch.

When Seachriest found denial of guilt was of no
avail, he unburdened his mind by a full I'ecital of
atrocities committed. Previously, howcvta', he liad
begged for a minister, and appearing ri'|t(Mitant was
baptized.

Three horse-thieves were hanged by th(! Committee
of Vigilance of Montana on the 10th of June IH()(5
near Helena, and the Committee were then in pursuit
of others. Throughout all the more thidcly settled
portions of the territory was posted the following
notice :

" Beware ! The \igilance Committee is in session ! Beware of the careless
use of tii'e-arms !

"By order of the Committee ok Vigilance."

The 27th of September 18G5 two horse-thieves
named Jones and Collins, but called respectively Jack-

698

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

son and Morgan, were executed by the Vigilance
Committee. The occupation of lawyers and judges at
this time and in these parts was extremely restricted.
Two months later, that is to say the 28th of Novem-
ber, George Saunders was found hanging upon the
old Dry Gulch tree with the following inscription
pinned to his back:

" This r..an was hung for robbing A. Slane of $1180, and for some amaller
stealings.''

There too, upon the same Dry Gulch tree, perished
in March 1866 James Daniels, tried, convicted, and
imprisoned by the law for the murder of Andre\\'
Gaitley, but pardoned by the governor. Says the
Montana Post of the 10th of March of this execu-
tion :

"The judge, as in duty bound, forthwith ordered the arrest of the liber-
ated criminal, and then returned to Helena with the acting marshal's order to
his deputy, John Featherstone, to secure the runaway, who had fled, it Mas
supposed, to that vicinity. There was no such intention as flight in the mmd
of Dauiels. He went there to i-cvenge himself on the witnesses, as he had
threatened. At Duston Hot Spring Rancho, fifteen miles from Helena, a
reliable man informed judges Munson and Strickland that Daniels had told
him, when he passed in the coach, that he was going to Helena to attend to
one or two jobs of men who had testified against him. A fit subject for mercy
was Daniels, surely. This news arrived in town almost as soon as he did. He
seemed to feel intuitively that something wis brewing tliat boded no good for
him, and he went to Featherstone, who was yet without orders, and asked his
protection. He was permitted to stay at the office, and at night that officer
accompanied him to the place where he was going to sleep. At Daniels' special
request Featherstone went around town to see if he could gather any infor-
mation of u suspicious kind as regarded any proposed attempt on the person
of the culprit. No symptoms were discovered, and he returned to infor.u
Daniels that he was safe. On arriving at the store he was apprised of hi^
having been taken away by parties unknown to the owners of the store, ami
in the morning his lifeless body was found suspended from the murderers' tree
in Dry Gulch."

Charles Jewett met an ancient enemy at Diamond
City the 4th of February 1866.

"How are you getting along?" asked the ancient
enemy.

" I will show you !" exclaimed Jewett, who there-
upon drew and fired; but failing of its message, the

A THIRSTY SPOT INDEED.

bullet entered the breast of another whose name was
Fisher, wounding him dangerously. The law examined
Jewett, and the sheriff took him to Gallatin, where he
lived, and placed over him a guard of two. Meanwhile
as the facts became noised the people pondered. Jewett
was not a lovely character. That he was not now a
murderer was through no fault of his; that he would
be one if left at large was certain. In common with
all men he must die; following the courfie of the
wicked he must die soon. Is it not better he should
die quietly now, than after further uproar and a pro-
miscuous scattering of bullets ? As the resvilt of these
meditations and nmrmurings Charles jewett was
found hanging next day in full view of Gallatin City.
Likewise not far distant was found suspended another
unfortunate, of what name, by whom so placed, or for
what wickedness, no one seemed to know.

The Walla Walla Statesman, commenting on affairs
in Montana in April 1866, offers the following strong
testimony in favor of the Montana Committee of
Vigilance :

"A circular issued by the vigilants of Montana says that the organization
is still in active existence, and that all oflfences against iicrsons or property will
be summarily punished. Tlie practice of drawing deadly weapons is repro-
bated, and those who thus offend are warned that punishment will surely follow.
As a rule vigilance committees are objectionable, but in he case of Montana
it is doubtful whether honoat men could have remained in the country had it
not been for the Vigilance Committee. As it is, life and property are a^ well
protected in Montana as in any country iji the world, and all because the
people have taken the law in their own hands."

Two miners at German Gulch, J. L. Goones and
Hugh Dowd, lived together all winter, working by day
and sleeping at night. All went well until one day
in April 1866 the two men drank and disputed.
Goones stabbed Dowd, and the people hanged Goones,
though Dowd was not then dead.

Dry Gulch again; June 1866. 'Frenchy' he was
called, but his right name was John Croucliet. He
was thirty-five or thereabout and came from the Boi.su
country to these parts. Frenchy was a sort of limb

700

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

of the law, which circumstance led him to the limb
of the hangman's tree. Elevated to the post of night-
watchman, he stole seven hundred dollars from a
drunken man : a very mean thing for even an officer
of the law to do. With four hundred dollars of it he
made himself first interesting, then roaring. When he
could drink no more, being under confinement, repent-
antly he returned three hundred of the dollars. Upon
the back of what was Frenchy his epitaph was posted :

" No. 7. A robber, perjurer, and one who tried to swear away the lives
of innocent men. An old offender caught at last."

Then began men's consciences to question them:
Had they ever robbed or sworn wrongfully, and should
they too some morning awake to find what remained
of themselves hanging upon the classic tree?

Twenty of the best citizens of Argenti banded the
28th of December 1866 for protection against crime,
unable longer to endure the glorious uncertainty of
the law.

Fat cattle were Jim Walter's fancy; though Jim
Walter was his work-day name only, which he em-
ployed as one puts on a suit of soiled clothes for dirty
work. Arrayed in respectability, and James P. Staley
was his name. But whatever his name, he had a
fondness for fat cattle. He was not particular where
they were fatted, on the Missouri or in the valley of
the Gallatin, but the more convenient they were to
his unpretentious slaughter-house on Willow Creek
the better. There was a good market for the meat
in that vicinity, too. This was at Helena, and early
in January 1867. Presently the stock-raisers began
to miss their finest cattle, and Staley was charged
with having stolen them. He concluded, all things
being weighed, that it was best for him to leave that
place. Opposed to walking, he took a horse that was
not his and rode away. A body of cattle-raisers was
soon after him. Staley was forced to quit the road and
plunge into a thicket. Night coming on, the pursuers

LAST OF CHARLES WILSON.

701

built a large fire, when their game was discovered
lying flat upon his breast pointing his pistol at them.
To an order to come out he replied by discharging
his weapon. The party then fired simultaneously, and
the fellow was riddled with bullets.

From a tripod formed of three fence-rails twelve
feet in length the body of Charles Wilson was found
dangling one morning in September 18G7. It was by
the stone-quarry near Virginia. The body was fully
dressed, the hat upon the head, the pockets untouched,
and on the ground lay a blanket. The feet just
touched the grass, and the single word "Vigilaiits"
labelled the back. Wilson had been a companion of
Slade's, an employe of the express company, a mem-
ber of militia company D, and lu^lper on tlic overland
railroad. Last of all, his occupation was tliat of road
agent. It appears that a secret association had re-
cently been organized, numbering thirty-five actixe
agents, with over a hundred supernumeraries, who
stood ready as occasion required to assist, shield, and
comfort members of the brotherhood. The purposes
of the organization were robbery, and when deemed
expedient, incendiarism and murder. The thirty-five
were to do the work; the one hundred to assist escape,
or if any were captured to act as jurors, witnesses, and
bondsmen. The overland treasure shi})ments were to
have their especial attention; likewise the burglary of
certain stores in Virginia. Several prominent citi-
zens, who objected to spend their lives in planting for
others to reap, were also marked for murder. All
this and more was imparted by one who had recently
been sworn in as member; but what he told the Vig-
ilance Committee they already knew. Thus after a
respite in this quarter began an«w the work of exter-
mination. One Douglass, a cattle-thief, escaped from
the Helena prison, and falling into his old ways again
was caught and executed by thief-hunters.

For some time past the Virginia Committee had
remained passive, leaving to law its opportunity.

702

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

During their former exercise of power they had suc-
ceeded in intimidating crime, and a period of quiet
followed. But the discovery of the existence of a new
and powerful criminal organization awoke them to the
necessity of renewed action, and the execution of
Wilson was the beginning of a new regime. The re-
vival of activities on the part of the Vigilacce Com-
mittee called forth much discussion. There w^as less
partisan spirit manifest now than formerly. Now
almost all the Montana journals without regard to
politics, unite in awarding the highest praise to the
vigilance organization. Says the Helena Gazette, the
leading democratic paper in the territory, in October
1867:

" With many of our good citizens, we have deprecated the existence of
such an irresponsible body in Montana aa a yigilance committee, but cliicfly
deprecated its, at times, necessity. That this organization brought urdur
out of the most bloody anarchy in Montana, at a time when law was power-
less, its executive oihceu being in the hands of villains, no one at this Juy
doubts. That many cold-blooded murderers and daring robbers have gone
unwhipped of justice since they ceased to take cognizance of such matters is
also true, and has been lamented by all good citizens who wished to see the
law predominant."

A. K. INIcClure, writing from Montana in the autumn
of 1867 to the New York Tribune, says of tlic vigil-
ance organization :

"Of the brave men who inaugurated and openly sustained this movement,
DO one can justly be awarded exclusive praise ; but there; is one who figures
as conspicuously in the history of the vigilants as did I'himnicr in the reign
of terror. Some twelve years ago I was accustomed to meet on the streets
of Chambcrsburg, Pa., a young man named John X. Beidlcr. His frugal
wants were supplied by the manufacture of brooms, and finully he mixed tlie
best of cocktails and juleps at a neighboring summer resort. lie was as
amiable and unofTending a lad as the community could fnrnisli, and his jolly,
genial humor made him a favorite with all who knew him. Although he liad
attained liis majority, ho Mas scarcely live feet six incliea in height, and was
far below the average of men in pliysical jjowers. He linallj' wandered west
in search of fortune, and soon after the advent of Plummer came X., tlie only
name by which he is universally known in Montana. Thus the l)ane and the
antidote were close upon each other. Strong in his inhjrent love of honesty,
a stranger to fear, not powerful, but quick as thought in his actions, and limi
in his purpose as the eternal mountains around him, ho naturally entered
promptly and earnestly into the efifort to restore order and safety to society.

JOHN X. BEIDLER.

703

That littlo was expected of him when he first cast his lot with the stem re-
formers is not surprising, but his tireless perseverance, unfaltering courage,
and siiiguhu- skill in thwarting the pluus of the common enemy, soon made
him the chief pillar of the organization and the unspeakable terror of every
desperado. This diminutive man, without family or property to defend, has
himself arrested scores of the most powerful villains, and lias executed, in
open day, an equal number under the direction of the wonderful fountain of
retribution that was unseen but was surging around the hasty scaiTold. So
expert is he with his faithful pistol that the most scienced of rogues have
repeatedly attempted in vain to get the drop on him ; quick as a flash his
pistol is drawn, cocked while drawing it, and presented to the doomed man
with the stern demand, 'Hands up, sir !' and the work is done. At one time,
without aid. he arrested six of the most desperate thieves in a body, all well
armed, and marched them before him to prison. 'Hands up, gents!' was
the first intimation they had from him that he had business with thcni, and
submission was the only course of safety. Had any one of them attempted
to reach toward his belt he would have fallen that moment. There were
citizens close by, and how many of them, if any, were sworn to protect and
ready to aid Beidler, ho knew, while the prisoners did not. This indefinite,
unseen, immeasurable force seems to have over stricken the most courageous
thieves and murderers nerveless, when its sudden and fatal grasp was thrown
around them. They would fight scores of men for their lives in any ordinary
attempt to arrest them, but they were invariably weakened when th-j citizen
confronted them in the name of public safety. No formalities were known.
No process was read bearing the iiigh seal of the courts. When or where the
dread summons of the great unseen tribunal would come none could conjecture.
The sleeping companion of the desperado in some distant rancho would prob-
ably drink and breakfast with him, and then paralyz<; liim by the notice,
'You're wanted — business at Virginia !' In no instance <lid any of the many
lawless characters arrested by the vigilants over fire a i>i8tol in their own
defence, even when they knew that death was inevitable. In niyst coses the
opportunity was slight, but under all ordinary circumstances the narrowest
chances would be taken to cfTect escape. From ' X' no criinuial ever got away.
To have attempted it would have been but to hasten death. So mucli did the
desperadoes respect as well as fear him, that most of them, wlien condemned
to die by his hund, committed thuir last rci^uests U) him, and with hiir they
have been sacred. Order and public safety have been restore'.!, bu^. lie still
has emplo3rment in his favorite line, lie continues to act as the (thief detec-
tive of the territory. lie comes niid goes, and none but himself knows liis
errand. 'What'sup, X?' is a (jucry that is generally answered, 'After tracks;'
and 'Don't know,' is his usual ruply to all questions as to his route or time
of departure. Ho has traversed alone every highway and set lenient of
Montana, prospected many of the nncxiilorcd regions, and is ever icady, with-
out escort or aid, to pursue a criminal wherever he may seek refuge. His
career has indeed been most remarkable, iind Iiis escape, urdiarmed, through
his innumerable conflicts with the worst men seems almost miraculous. He
has recently been appointed collector of customs for the port of Helena, but
while there is a thief, a defaulter, a murderer, or a savage >*> disturb the

i
I

rOPULtVR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

pcaco of Montana, he will ramain tho most efficient messenger of justice known
in the mountain gold regions. Ho has lost none of his genial, kindly nature
by his long service as the bearer of relentless retribution upon the lawless,
and wherever he goes he is welcomed by every lover of order and government.
When ho is upon tho war-path, ' it's no for neathiug the glcd whistles,' and
crime has no escape but in timely retreat. Fully three thousand jierfcctly
organized men are at his back. They have their companies, officers, minute-
men, and messengers in every settlement, and he con rally in an instant
scores or himdreds of true men to his side. "

In connection with this fresh display of popular
power there sprang up a new and strange organiza-
tion, called by some anti-vigilance, though I should
term it rather an opposition vigilance committee, as it
seemed to op}jose certain methods of procedure in the
main organization, and not the principles themselves.
They objected not to popular trials and executioiis,
but to dark doings and secret executions by night.
The Montana Post, always a strong upholder of vigil-
ance, vouches for the honesty and respectability ol'
the reformatory association, and expresses the opinion
that the members thereof will resort to extreme meas-
ures for the fullilinent of their purposes. Here is one
of their warning cries ; to say the least, it opens a
new phase in the annals of vigilance :

"Wo now, as a sworn band of law-abiding citizens, do hereby solemnly
swear that the first man that is hanged by tho vigilauta of this place, we will
retaliate fi\c for one unless it be done in broad daylight, so that all may
know what it is for. Wo are all well satisfied that in times past you did do
some glorious work, but tho time has come when law should be enforced.
Old fellow-members, the time is not like il was. Wo had good men with us ;.
but now there is a great change. There is not a thief cornea to this country
but what 'rings' himself into tho present Conunittee. We know you all.
You must not think you can do na you please. Wo are American citizens,
and you shall not drive and hong whom you please.

"Five poa Onk."

It is seldom we see a citizen ironed by the authori-
ties for participation in a popular movement. Jack
Varley worked for a Mr Guezalla at Deep Gulch.
The master had made money enough and had con-
cluded to leave tho country; the man thought he
would like that money, and so determined to rob

PET NAMES FOR H^VNGINQ.

705

Mr Guezalla on the road, which ho did, and was pur-
Bued and arrested for it by the citizens of Deep Gulch
and Beartown. After the people had accomplished his
work for him, the Beartown sheriff came forward and
demanded the person of Varley, but was told that
while he was at largo he might have taken him had
he been so disposed, but now all his countrymen du-
numded of him was that he should stand aside. The
sheriff withdrew, nettled ; and encountering one of the
vigilants, McGee, alone and unprotected, under some
frivolous pretext he arrested and ironed him, telling
him meanwhile that if he would use his influence to
have Varley delivered to the law he, McGee, should he
released. McGee indignantly refused. Finally the
people tried and executed Varley, and McGee was
released on bail.

* Necktie sociable,' * strangulation jig,' and many
such euphonious names the people of Montana had
for hanging.

An incident is given of a young man, son of a re-
spectable citizen, who in March 18G8 was travelling
from Bannock to Salt Lake, and who, overtaking a
man with several horses going in the same dirc.-ticMi,
naturally joined him. It appears that the stranger
with the animals was a horse-thief of whom the Mon-
tana Vigilance Committee were then in pursuit. They
had not travelled far together when they were over-
taken, arrested, tried, condemned, and hanged together.

One day in August 18G8 as William Hynson was
standing in the street near the post-office in Benton
he was accosted by one of the citizens of the place :

"There is a man to be hanged, Bill, and we want
you to help us."

"What's his name? what is he to be hanged for?"'
asked Hynson.

" Never mind that, I have no time to talk ; get tt
good strong rope and help me rig it, while the Com-
mittee bring the fellow out."

Hynson obeyed. As long as he was not chief actor

Pop. Tbib., Voi.. I. is

708

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

in the tragedy it was a pleasure rather than otherwise
to be of service to the noble men who were cxercisiu^-
so healthful an influence upon society. The rope was
brought. Soon a rude scaffold was ready, in the
erection of which Hynson assisted with alacrity.
"Can't you tell me who the man is?" he asked

again.

You

"No, no; fasten that end of the rope strong,
will know all about it presently."

Coming up by twos and threes, a crowd soon gath-
ered, when Hynson was ordered to take his plac«'
beneath the gallows which he had helped to erect,
for he was the man for whom it was erected. Ho
had stolen a rifle from Mr Clagett; he had murdered
a Chinawoman, valued by her owners at six hundred
dollars; he had knocked down and robbed a freighter;
he was a l)ad man, and he must die. Hynson did not
like it at all; but forced to comply, he took his posi-
tion and was soon dangling.

Near the eastern boundary of Montana in Sep-
tember 1868 Harvey Wentworth, Andy Winenillei'.
and William Thomas were arrested for lioisc-stealing.
Those who knew the men could scarcely believe tlieni
guilty; nevertheless the first two were hanged. Thomas
escaped.

Some time during the winter of 1869-70 J. M.
Wood, who had been tried and condemned for the
murder of Tliomab J. Duffey and pardoned by the
governor, was hanged by the people of Lewistoii.
The jail at Diamond City was forced the night of
March 12, 1870, and W. C. Patrick, confined for the
murder of John Denser, was taken thence by a com
mitteo of citizens and hanged.

I will now give the proceedings of a popular tribti
iial which for coolness and precision of judgment can
but recommend itself to all lovers of justice. Its
occurrence was during the latter part of April 1870.
Even at this comparatively late day the people of

THE CASE OF LENHART.

707

Montana seemed to regard this method of administer-
ing justice as the natural and proper way, being more
sure, speedy, and economical than courts of law, and
in the main dealing more even-handed justice. The
place was Helena, never without a thoroughly organ-
ized and eflScient committee of vigilance, and which
by this time had had much exp< rience.

George Lenhart, an old man, useful, respectable,
and kind-hearted, was found l)y two travellers near
Helena, on the morning of the 28th of April, lying
insensible in the road, covered with blood. The sheriff
was notified, and medical aid provided, though slight
hopes were entertained of his recovery. Regaining
consciousness, the old man stated that as he was riding
homeward the night previous he was overtaken by
two horsemen, one of whom shot him in the thigh with
a pistol, and when he had fallen from his horso beat
him on the liead to insensibility. Then when they
thought him dead the two men rifled his pockets of
two hundred and twenty -five dollars; and thoru he had
lain all night. Then he described the appearance of
the men and the horses they rode. Soon it was ascer-
tained at the livery-stable that two men had engaged
horses shortly before the attack, which they had
mounted and ridden in that direction. After duo
search two persons corresponding to the description
given by Lenhart and by the stable-keeper were ar-
I'ested and lodged in jail. Their names were Joseph
Wilson and A. L. Conipton. The men and the horses
were then taken to the house where Lenhart now lav.
One of the men and one of the horses he recognized;
the others he could not positively identify.

On the evening of the 29th the citizens held a
meeting to talk the matter over. There was little
doubt by this time as to the guilt of the prisoners. A
good man long and favorably known among them
had been villainously assaulted. The law was tedious,
expensive, and uncertain. Lenhart might recover,
and court proceedings thereby become obtuse. Three

708

POPULAR TKIBUXALS 01' MONTANA.

thousand or four thousand dollars could easily bo
.spent in the trial of these nien. If cleared, any one of
them might be their next victim; if found guilty, and
Lenhart should recover, tliere was little probability
they would be condcnmed to death, in which event
three or four thousand dollars more might be sj)ent
feeding, clothing, lodging, and watching them during
confinement. The men were not worth it. They
were not citizens of that place accused of crime, but
they were birds of prey, vultures, flying hither and
thither, circling round and round, hungrily watching
an opportunity to dart upon the defenceless. That
they were robbers and murderers was certain, or at
all events could easily be made certain. It was of no
consequence at all to minds tempered like theirs
whether Lenhart lived or died; these men were mur-
derers, and very brutal ones, whether he recovered or
not. It was well enough for the law with its moun-
tains of precedents, its j)rofounder insight into this
and that, to distinouish between killimTf a man very
dea<l or (jnly Icilling liim a little, if it wished. Foi-
them, law and learning to the contrar}^ notwith-
standing', it was enough to know that a citizen had
been shot, beaten senseless, and robbed; to know
that the persons doing it wei-e worthy of death, were
not worthy of long and expensive talk about it. Thus
argued the meeting. And the more these coarse prac-
tical brains revolved tlu^ matter, the more sure ol"
right their owners were.

They would sleep on it. The meeting adjourned
to ten o'cloc'k next day. An hour before the time a
thousand men had gathered at the court-house, whicli
was the place appointed. The assembly was called to
order and Harvey English appointed to preside. ]\fr
English stated the purpose of the meeting in a some-
what lengthy speech, as every man knew what he
was there for. He rehearsed the circumstances of
the old man's treatment, and stated that the perpe-
trators cf the deed, if found, should be punished.

WiLSOX ANT) COMPTON.

700

Suspicion pointed at that moment to two men lying
in the jail, and in order to avoid the law's delay and
uncertainty, he proposed that the citizens should re-
lieve the law which they had made, and the office is
of the law whom they had appointed, from the burden
and responsibility of trying these men, and that they
should be brought before a bar of the whole pe()[)ie,
that they should be impartially tried, and if found
guilty, executed.

Thereupon the speaker took his seat, which con-
sisted of a cliaii' on the landing of the court-house
steps. There was not the slightest excitement visible
anywhere; all was as quiet and orderly as at a eamp-
nieotinjj. A well known nu'rehant of the town liftin*!'
liis liat tlien moved that a committee or jury of twenty
citizens be ap})ointe(l to obtain evidence, to listen to
accusation and defence, and declare to tlii' asseml)le(l
people tlie guilt or innocence of the i)ersons diarged
with the crime. The motion [)assed; the committee
were clioseii, and retiriniif to a room be<>an at once their
task. They appointed a marshal, .]ose})h Woolman.
and a police force to wait upon instructions. Two
witnesses, J. Lowry and W. U. Morris, who accom-
panied the prisoners to the place where lay Lenhart
for lecognition, were examined; then the stable-man,
and after him many others.

Up to this time the two men Wilson and Compton
lay in jail unmolested. Now the committee having
need of them ordered their officers to produce them
one at a time. The marshal detailed a jntssc of men,
and waiting upon tlu' sher-ilf made known to him the
M'ill of the conmiittee. The sh(jritf refused obedience.
Meanwhile Wilson sent word to the committee, say-
insj that if they d(\sire(l it ho would make a statement
and throw himself on their mercy. The marshal in-
creased his j^osse and demanded from the sheriff the
prisoners. Again he was ri'fuse<l; whereupon the
sheriff and his deputies were seized and search ma<le
for the keys. They wc^re not on tlie jierson of any,

'J
f.

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

but were soon found in the jailer's room. The officers
of the law were then locked up in a room by them-
selves, and a guard placed over them. The prison
door was opened, a double line of citizens formed from
the jail door to the committee room, and Wilson was
brought forth. He expressed his readiness to make a
full confession; but as he stated he should implicate
others, the committee ordered all spectators from tho
room. Wilson then told everything, entering into
particulars of that and other crimes not necessary
liere to repeat. Next Compton was brought before
the committee; and in short the guilt of the two men
was clearly proved. The}' confessed to everything,
disclosed the stolen money, and ref(uested a priest.
There was no need of further deliberation ; the com-
mittee presented themselves before the assembly, and
one of their number, Mr Lawrence, read the following
verdict: "The committee to whom was referred the
charge against Wilson and Compton report that they
find, from the evidence and the confessions of tlie
parties, that on the night of the 27tli of April 1870,
in the county of Lewis and Clarke, A. L. Compton
and Joseph Wilson shot, with intent to kill, Geoigi;
Lenhart, and then and there robbed him of one hun-
dred and ninety-three dollars in currency and about
two ounces in gold-dust."

At this juncture the district judge appeared before
the assembly and requested to be heard. Permission
being granted, he entered a strong protest against
popular interference with the civil authorities. In
this instance particularly, he said, these unlawful pro-
ceedings on the part of the people were uncalled for
and inexcusable. There might be conditions under
which popular administration of justice would seem
warrantable, but such conditions did not here exist.
They had courts well ai)pointed and competent; their
prison was secure. Such conduct was a reflection not
only on the integrity of their officers, but on their
wilHngness to al)ide lawful government. Tlie judge

SOLEMN EXECUTION.

711

was listened to patiently and respectfully. He was a
good man enough, but they had heard similar argu-
ments fifty times before. Promises were fair; per-
formance slack. There was something radically wTong
in the system that failed so signally to punish crime,
and to protect life and property. Statutes, consti-
tutions, and courts were doubtless all very well, but
they could not sit calmly under the shadow of such
paraphernalia and see good men shot down and robbed
upon the highway day after day and year after year-.
All they proposed to do was the law's duty. Experi-
ence had taught them if they wanted a thing done, to
do it themselves; if not, trust it to the law.

Finally the vote was put by the chairman: "Wliat
shall be done with the prisoners?" "Hang them I"
was the response. Again and more caroiully the
question was put: "Is it your decree that the |)i'is-
oners, Joseph Wilson and A. L. Compton, shall be
taken to Pine Tree, in Dry Gulch, and there hanged
by the neck until they are dead?" "It is; that's
the verdict I" came from almost every person there
present.

It was now half past two. A motion |trovaileil
that the prisoners be given until four o'clock to pre-
pare for death, at which hour their execution should
take place. Throughout the entire proceedings there
was manifest the utmost decorum, and e\ eu st>lemnity,
among the crowd, which had now swelled to three
thousand souls. At no time during the day was theic
any loud talking, boisterous demonstration, or bra-
vado; even tlie coercion of the sheriff' and liis ileputies
was unattended by violence. Their duty coinpeMed
them to I'esist, yet tliey knew resistance t<t lie useless.

At the liour appointed tlie famous gulch [)resented
the appearance of a vast amphitheatre. The sides and
hills adjacent were dense with people on foot, on horse-
back, and in carriages. The town was deserted. At
half-past four the two men were taken from the room
in which they had been boniined and placed in a wagon.

n i I

' it

I 'I

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

Father Iinmode sat beside Compton, and the Reveroiul
S. G. Lathrop accompanied Wilson. The doomed wore
calm, and apparently intent on gaining if possible the
future salvation promised. There was that about
the whole proceeding impressive, awe-inspiring. A
stranger fresh from the fossilized formalities of staidei-
parts could scared}' believe this to be what was so
hooted as mobocracy, lynch law, the work of the in-
furiate rabble. Nor was it. It was the deliberate ex-
pression of sober popular will, as deliberate and sober
as ever citizens displayed in the performance of tlioir
duty. Under the shadow of the flital tree the wagon
halted. The noose was adjusted; the ropes swung;
prayer was sai<l ; the horses started, and all was {jui(^kly
over.

t(|
l'[

ell

1)1

tn
hi

Two hundred of the men of Bozeman, jSIontana,
about ei<i:ht o'clock on the ovcnin<jf of the 1st of Fel)-
ruary 1873 pi-occn dcd in a body to tlic county jail
and demandt'd IVoni the sh(>rifl* two prisoners called
Steamboat Bill, tliat is to say John W. St Clair, and
Triplctt, the former liaving wantonly shot to deatli a
Chinawoman, and the latter liaving stablx'd to death
a saloon-keeper. The sheriff refused. Tlie peo[)le
proceeded to break open the jail door, and the
sheriff liurried off to Fort Ellis foi- troops to slaiighti'r
the citizens slaughtering the impi'isoned slaugliterers.
Killinuf was kino- at Hozeinan. The commandant
gave th(^ slierilf a S(juad of soldiers, but luckily for
the soldiers 1 hey did not ari'iv(> in time to be killed
by the [)eople, as tlie hanging was all over before
tliev <'ame ui"). Th(^ swimming carcasses of his whilom
(companions were ])ointe(! to one Scotty, and he was
told to leaM'. He left. Triplctt was an old fisher-
man wlio brought trout from the Yellowstone. En-
tering a saloon one day and taking a drink he walked
off without paying for it; the keeper followed him,
whereupon the ancient fisherman turned and stabbed
iiim.

A niSMAL FARCE.

•13

The Montana Mountain of the I7th of June 1875
is responsible for tlie following:

" Tlio spirit of the early days has not yi't died out in Mi)ntaii,i, hut once
in a while mauifcsts its liveliness even in these slow-going times. The other
day in the lively little niining-e.imp yclept Trapjicr City the report f)f .«tevoral
pistol-shots fired in rapid succession spread consteraation amon;j tiie jieaceful
inhabitants of that (juiet burg ; and the rumor that the village iiad attained
to the dignity and honor of a 'man for breakfast' soon attracted tiie nuijor
l)ortion of its deni/ens to the place whence the sounds piin •ceded. Tiio
excitement was raised to fever-heat when on entering the house a man was
discovered lying on the floor weltering in a pool of blood whicii hnd trickled
from his right ear, and breathing heavily, as tliough in mortal agony; .and in
one corner of the i-oum stood a man with a brace of navy six-shooters in his
hands, and glaring upon the crowd like a hound at bay. Of eour.se the situa-
tion was comprehended in a moment ; a horrible nnirder had been ci)mniilte<l ;
the bleeding victim lay in the throes of death upon the cabin floor, and ids
nuirdercr stood in the corner prcpari'd to deal death and destruction upon
tiie assembled crowd. A cry for vengeance arose from a score of tliroats, and
some essayed a movement njMjn the man in the corner, wlien the 'navies,"
lirought to a horizontal positi(Ui u[)on a level with fiieir eyes, warned th(Un
tiint such a proceeding would be attended with soini- dangei', and they pru-
dently retired. After a little, one of the crowd wa-s induced fo see if anytiiing
could lie done for the living man, and approached him foi' that pur])iisc, when
th(^ man in the corner yelleil out, 'Get out of that, or I'll Mow the top of
youi- damned head ofl'I That's my meat!' and as he spoke he enipluusized his
remark with a shot from the six-shooters. The huiuanitarian stood not M]>on
the order of his going liut lit out with remarkable celerity, .-ind as he made
rapid kransit through the street he was Haluted l^y the confederates of the
nuirderer with a volley of ])istol-shots which made hint think a battle of
artillery had been turned hH)se upon him, and lent wings to his llyiiii.' feet as
he departed from Hueh uncongenial scenes. JJy this time a battery of [tistols
was uniiiaskeil in the vicinity of the nuirder, and he .saw unl' ss he got out of
that he would l)e a riddled member of tin- eonnnunity, anil, with levelled
pistols, made a dash for life and liberty. The crowd gave way before the
deadly-looking wea|ions, l)ut a dozen pistols were disi'harged at him as hu
rushed out of the house and .succeedid in gaining the cover of a fiirmlly
stump, where he tMnieil and disehargi . his weapons with such rai)idit.\ that
the crowd scattered with an al;icrit,y that denoted a positive ilislike to a salu-
tation of that character.

"During the excitenK'ntcon«e(|uent upon these proceedings the fact that a
man was wounded, jind jierhaps dying, had been entirely lorgotteu, but now
8ome of the terrilied cili.'.eiis turned their attention to his necessities. Mes
sengers were despatched foi' surgical assistance, and some went into the house
to render aid to the bleeding victim of ruthless murder, lie was still insen-
sible, but yet breathing, and the bohlest of the men turned to look for the
wHUind. It eouhl not be found I The bullet nnist have entered the drum of
the car and loilged in tlie head, and nothing could be done irntil tin- arrival

714

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

of a surgeon. A committee were detailed to capture tlic murderer, and wcri^
about to start on their mission when a shout of horse -laughter from the crowd
at the door apprised the excited citizens that there was something wrong. And
there was. A closer examination disclosed the fact that a liuge ' sell ' hod been
perpetrated ; that the wounded man was deud-druuk ; that the artillery ha<l
all been loaded with blank cartridges, and that somebmly was minus a bottle
of brilliant carmine writing fluid, whicli ha<l lieen adroitly used in represen-
tation of the clotted gore. The humanitarian referred to returned to town
next day, somewhat the worse for wear and just a little hot over the situa-
tion ; but he can liud 2>leuty of men who Will wagur u silver mine that hu con
iTin ten miles an hour for ten consecutive hours under Hiinilar circumstances.
And now, if you want to see a genuine expression of intense disgust, ask a
Trapper City man if the Vigilance Committee have caught that murderer."

Of the Cheyenne Vigilance Committee one hun-
dred went to Dale City in January 1868 and captured
and hanged three men, Keith, Shorty, and Jack
Hayes. On the night of the 20th of March the
Cheyenne Committee did some hanging at home; they
executed Charles Martin and John Morgan. The
former was one of a band of horse-thieves of which
McLaughlin was captain.

The Cheyenne press approves of a new form of
notification to leave introduced into the practice of
vigilance by the Committee of that place. Says the
Star of the 22d of January 1868:

" We think this public notir.cation tho best method: No person will )«;
notified to leave this territory except thrr.igh a public newspaper of this jilacc,
and if said notified parties will not leave within twenty-four hours, the Com-
mittee will no longer bo responsible for their safety, (ieorge IJrowii, Neil
Murphy, Cocke, at New Ideas, Jack Bristol, Thonids Ciinipheli, l^iiyene Debnn-
ville, Frank St Clair, Al Cunningham, Slippery Bill, and Diivf Mullins: The
above parties will leave this territory in twenty-four hours.

"By order of the Vioilance Committee."

Often the danger attending border life is made the
plaything of ruffians, who for the pleasure of stealing
a horse or indulging in a drunken frolic will risk cap-
ture and death where the chances of escape are almost
closed against them.

I have here one incident of this chai-acter, which
happened in October 1877 in Wyoming, and another
about the same time in Arizona: William Rowe and

FATAL FROLICS.

716

a comrade named Jones, known in Wyoming for sev-
eral years as desperate characters, stole some animals
from B. F. Hatch, a freighter, and escaped with thorn.
The thieves, though shrewd, were easily followed,
and in recovery of the animals Jones was shot dead
and Rowc captured. The Arizona tragedy was simply
the result of a reckless froUc. Two noted despera-
does, Tullos and Vaughn, entered Prescott and began
amusing themselves by shooting dogs and presenting
their loaded revolvers at the breasts of people, threat-
ening to let daylight through them if they opened
their mouths. Then mounting liorses they rode down
through Montezuma street at full gallop, yelling and
shooting like demons. As a matter of course, tlie
officers and citizens were obliged to put an end to such
proceedings, and in doing so one of the ruffians was
shot to death and the other nearly killed.

A young fellow named Ryan, living from boyhood
in Cheyenne, and one Babeock were brought into
town the 8th of November 1877 for robbing the south-
bound Black Hills coacli almost under th(^ very walls
of Fort Laramie. Ryan had been twice in the [>eni-
tentiary before, but this time he was placed thei-e for
seventeen years and Babeock for fifteen. Two D'wk
Turpins, Blackl)urn and Wall, were brought in from
numerous alleged stage robberies about this time, in-
cludinij one where the sum of fifteen thousand dollars
was secured from the treasure-box. One of them was
badly wounded in his eai)ture.

At (central City, two and a half miles from Dead-
wood, in the Black Hills, was located the Hidden
Treasure mine. During the sunmier of 1877 theri;
was trouble as to the ownership of the mine, which
resulted in homicide and litigation. In November
forty men were at work on one of the shafts, and fail-
ing to receive their pay they took possession of the
mine. Arming themselves with Sharp rifles and re-
volvers, and laying in a plentiful supply of amumnition
and provisions, they were prepared for a siege. The

1 F ■

716

POPUI.AR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

sheriff with his pofine on their airival found the en-
trance to the tunnels and shafts liarricaded, with rifle-
harrels gleaming through the apertures. The mine was
worked at the time by a contractor, and although tho
yield was good, he neglected to pay the men, who, as
they claimed, took "peaceable possession of said Keats'
mine in order to get our pay, which has so long been
due, and of which we and our families arc sadlv in
want."

As Sanford S. C. Dugan, a native of Pennsylvania,
twenty-three years of age, M'as being (conveyed from
the Larimer- street prison in Denver, about the 1st
of December 18G8, to the city jail for greater safety,
the wagon was intercepted by one hundreil citizens
and driven to a cotton-wood tree on Cherry stieet,
where a rope was arranged round his neck and ovei'
a limb. The poor wretch begged piteously for his life,
saying he had never robbed, and had killed but one
man, and that in self defence: but the proofs of guilt
were so satisfying to his judges that the fatal ordci-
was given to drive on whereat wagon and soul each
wended its way, leaving the body dangling. Fifty of
the most quiet and respectable citizens of Denver but
a few day before this, namely on the 23d of Nt)vem-
ber, took L. H. Musgrove from the jail and hanged
him. The man had been in the habit of disguising
himself as an Indian and committing depredations
in various parts. As he was brought from prison
a crowd gathered, to whom the v^ote was put if he
should be hanged, and a unanimous 'ay' followed. He
was placed in a wagon and driven under Cherry Creek
bridge, where he was allowed time to write some
letters, which he did, smoking a cigarette in the most
nonchalafit manner. When the wagon started he
crouched low and made a spring in order to secure a
better fall.

Two thousand citizens on one occasion, the 12th of
June 1880, appeared upon the streets of Leadville to
quell a miners mob; and they quelled it.

DOINGS ABOUT L.\IIAMIE.

Kid, a nice young man without, but ragged in-
wardly, having a fancy for drugging his Aictinis bi -
fore robbing them, witli a hempen cravat adorning
his neck and gentle zephyrs playing fantastically witli
his raven locks, as the Cheyenne Leader expresses it,
graced a telegraj)h pole of Ejai-aniie in August 18()8.
This warning sutHced for three months only. In No-
vember H. C. Thomas drugged a man at Br3'an and
robbed him of two hundred and seventy dollars. At
Laramie he shortly after attempted the same exploit,
when he was ai-rested and committed to the calaboose.
Five cocked pistols pointed at the keeper's head b}-
five masked men a night or t\v() alter produced the
key, which, after taking Thomas away and hanging
liim, they were careful to return to the jailer.

Three hundred men or thereabout comprised the
vigilance organization of Laramie in the winter of
18G8-9. It was no sinecure, membersliip of this corps.
In their encounters with the desperadoes of the moun-
tains bullets often (lew freely, and death was the reward
of bravery. Three men were hange<l by them one day
in October 18G8, and before the bodies were removed
a fourth was added to the ghastly row. Asa Moore,
Con Wcigcr, and Edward Barnard were the names of
the three disgraces which were raised into immortality
by reason of their sins. Among others granted per-
mission to leave that place with their feet still touch-
ing earth was Steve Young, Long Steve he was called
for short; but disregarding the kindly warning he
attended the elevation of the innnortals blusteriniilv.
"No danmed strani^lers shall drive me from town!"
he said. Again he was aifectionately warned to be
quiet, and to depart in peace, if he didn't want the top
of his head blown oft*. Stephen defied the vigilants
the second time, and even the third; whereupon ho
was elevated thence by the stranglers whom he had
so delighted to dishonor.

The Laramie organization in its opei'ations extended
as far as the western end of the Union Pacific Railroad.

I ;.■ s

718

POPULAR TRIBUNALS OF MONTANA.

In October 1868 they hanged five men at Gilmer,
then a recent railroad town, among whom were David
Mullen and a notorious villain named Morris. At Bear
River a riot occurred among the graders the 20th
of November 18C8, growing out of the hanging of
three men nine days previous. It was a war between
crime, its supporters, and honesty-loving citizens. The
latter armed, and the mob after burning the jail came
upon them, when they fired, killing six and wounding
twenty. Powers, O'Neil, and Reed were the throe
men hanged, and their crime was garroting and mid-
night robbery. O'Neil's brother was working on the
grade, and he succeeded in rousing the rough element
to retaliation. Patsey Marley was the leader of the
rioters, and besides burning the jail they demolished
the Index office. The fight continued until fourteen of
the rioters were killed and thirty-five wounded. Only
one citizen, Mr Armstrong, was killed. Mr Freuuian,
editor of the Index, against whom the rioters were in-
censed on account of the support given l>y him to tliu
Vigilance Committee, was seized by the rioters, who de-
manded the names of those who hanged their friends.
"Hang him!" "Shoot him I" they cried. "Death to
the chief of the vigs I" But escaping through a saloon,
Freeman made his way to Fort Bridger, whence troops
were despatched and the riot quelled.

A pedler was robbed of some jewelry, and another
jierson of a trunk. Suspicion fell on three ill-looking
loafers, whom a coiii{)any of citizens tracked to their
rendezvous, where part of the plunder was found and
identified. One of the trio escaped; the other two
after trial were hanged at North Platte, March 1870
being about the date of their exit.

Three horse- thieves, Lewis Curry, James Hall, and
A. J. Allen, were caught near Deadwood, Dakota, in
June 1877 with two horses, stolen from the stage com-
pany, in their possession. The men were incarcerated
at Rapid City, but at night the jail was broken open
and the three thieves hanged by the people. At

A LARGE ORGANIZATION.

710

Leavenworth, Kansas, in August of this same year
Robert Scruggs was executed by the people for killing
Jasper Oliphant and Mr Graff under very aggravating
circumstances.

From the mountains and valleys to Hudrfano,
Colorado, in July 1877 came seventy-five men, who
seized Marcos (jronzalez while on trial for the murder
of the Browns, husband and wife, at a rancho near La
Veta, and hanged him to a telegraph pole. During
the progress of the trial the guilt of the prisoner had
been established beyond a doubt, and the patience of
the people being overcome by their wratli, they rose
up and terminated proceedings arbitrarily.

For fifteen years prior to 1877 there had existed
in north-western Illinois, south-western Iowa, and
north-eastern Missouri a secret order, with numerous
branches, known as the Anti-Horse-thief Association.
It was no part of its purpose, except in cases of ap-
parent necessity, to quarrel with the law ; at the same
time it did not profess very great respect for an insti-
tution which failed to accomplish the purposes for
which it was created. Spreading into Kansas and
Nebraska, the organization became a gre. t power,
with its lodges and its annual meetings, and all the
paraphernalia for the detection and extinguishing of
crime, not alone such as its name indicated, but of all
kinds of robbery and murder. ' It was composed almost
exclusively of respectable farmers, who stood ready, to
the number of eight thousand, to hunt rascality to the
death.

Many of tlie outrages in early times on emigrant
stashes and overland trains were charged to the Indians
when in reality they wore committed by bands of out-
laws.

Troops stationed at the respective forts throughout
that bleak interior were by no means fit to cope with
these desperate characters. Like too many of our
government servants, they were lazy, careless, indiffer-
ent, and stupid; laborious days and sleepless nights

720

POPUL.VII TRlBUxXALS OF MONTANA.

wero less attractive! than comfortable quarter.s and
regular potations. There was little f^jlorj' in catching;
besides, the soldiers were no match for them, either
in activity or intelligence. If sherifl's cannot catcii
rogues, assuredly soldiers cannot. In mechanical
slaughterings soldiers do very well; if well trained,
they have not intelli<jence and will sufficient to flee
danger when they see it. This is all as it should bo
for ])osts, to shoot and be shot at; but as detectives
they are of little value.

Emigrants in crossing the [)lains were accustomed
to travel in parties of greater or lesser magnitude for
mutual protection. Stages frequently carried a guard
of soldiers, who, together witli the armed passengers,
generally succeeded in intimidating attack. Under
such circumstances it required a larger force than was
usually found in one conqiany of marauders success-
fully to rob a stage; nevertheless hundreds of stages
were robbed and hundreds of emigrants were killed
b}' these border desperadoes during the years of ox-
team and stage travel.

With railroads came more refined robberies. There
was the gentlemanly pick-pocket in the 'sleeper' and
the cut-purse in the 'sm<jker;' three-card monte men
entertained the passengers and added v'ariety to the
gambling games ordinarily played. The large freight
traffic led to a new system of pillage, and it was found
necessary for servants of the railroad companies and
others to organize, and the Rocky Mountain Detective
Association of 187G was the result of this necessity.
In January 1877 at Kit Carson an important arrest
was made and a gang broken up which for the past year
had been pillaging the trains of the Kansas Pacific
Company. Not only did they break into freight trains,
and abstract groceries and dry-goods, but they also
stole from the cattle-cars horses and mules. A large
quantity of their plunder was on this occasion dis-
covered, and some fourteen persons taken intt) custody.

The affair of the brothers James — Frank and Jesse —

FRANK AND JESSE JAMES. 721

in Missouri, in some respects exceeds any occurrence
of the kind on the Pacific coast. Beginning their
career of crime at the ages of eighteen and sixteen
respectively, as members of a guerilla band during
the civil war, they were soon at the head of a gang
waging war on its own account. After keeping tlif
states of Missouri and Kentucky in a state uf fear fui-
five years, they escaped the several parties organize* I
for their capture, and came to California and spent
six months at the rancho of a relative at Paso Roble.s,
recovering from their wounds. Returning to Mis-
souri, killmg three or four men at Battle Mountain,
Nevada, on their way, they gathered their retainers
and spread yet greater terror on every side. Every
county organized a party for the capture, and large
rewards were offered; but it was not until after nego-
tiations by the authorities with one of James' band
that anything was effected. In his own house at Si
Joseph, Missouri, in April 1882 Jesse James was shot
to death by Robert Ford, who was tried for the mur-
der, pleaded guilty, sentenced to be hanged, and was
thereupon immediately pardoned by the governor and
given a reward of fifty thousand dollars.

Pop. TrxB.. Vol. I. 46

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE POPULAIl TRIBUNALS OF ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO,

AND MEXICO.

Der blindc, unbeholfcnc KoIohb, dcr init plumpeii Knochen onfonga
Gopolter macht, Hohcs und Niedcres, Nahcs und Femes mit gohnendem
Rachen zu verachlingen droht, und zuletzt — iiber Zwimriiiden stolpert?

Schiller.

Justice along the boundary line between Mexico
and the United States was q, scarce commodity in
early times, and it is only by way of comparison that
the mention of that locality has any value in this con-
nection. The warlike and predatory tribes that in-
fc!stcd those parts gave the thinly scattered settlers
enough to do to keep their lives and property fron»
the natives. They were border ruffians and white
desperadoes who prej^^ed alternately upon .savage and
civilized as best suited time and convenience; but
these were killed by their enemies as one kills a wild
beast when attacked, and little more was thought
of it.

The southern overland stage and emigrant travel
iirst attracted desperadoes along tht^ line. Station
keepers were killed and plundered, and liorses stolen
by Mexicans and Apaches. As settlers began to
occupy attractive spots and gather round them a
little property, vultures white and dusky disputed
for the prey. There were men (inough to steal the
moment there waM anything to be stolen. Besides the
migratory border ruffian, there were organized bands
roaming throughout the entire region of Sonora.
.southern California, and such parts of Arizona as

THE GALLANT OLANTAN.

723

offered plunder. One of these pitched camp in 1851
on the Colorado where now is Fort Yuma. There
were between thirty and forty in this gang, and as
this was before the establishment of the fort, they had
things all their own way. Woe betide the luckless
emigrant who fell into their hands. After having
travelled a thousand weary miles, after having endured
privations and sufferings indescribable, the attacks of
savages, the buffetings of sand-laden winds, hunger,
thirst, and sickness, this tinal scourge finished many
of them.

After a sojourn here of se\t.',rJ months some of
the band began to tire of it. Times were too tame;
the country was too poor for them. The road was
too straight to perdition to encourage increase of
travel. Sometimes there would not pass anything fit
to rob for a fortnight; and these villains actually
began to be ;ishanio(l of themselves, tliirfcy and more
of them sitting there and doing the work of about
three.

Their leader, Glantan, was of that opinion; at all
events ho wanted the others to go, and encouraf'ed
thoni in the thought. He had a Tittle scheme of his
own which he proposed to work out, provided lie did
not have to share +he profits with too manj. He was
a first-class buccaneer, a chef-cVceuvre of the devil, this
Glantan. His plan was to start a ferry across the
Colorado after the others had gone, and ho did it.
Then he took ioJi of whatever came tliat way. Charon
was a sympathetic saint beside him. His charge for
crossing \ras whatever the traveller had that he
wanted; and the charge was the same whether the
traveller crossed or not. One of liis rules was nevri-
to rob a man luitil after he had crossed and had [)ai(l
the ferriage, otherwise that would be robbing the
ferry.

Early in 1852 an opposition ferry was started below
Glantan 's. What audacity I What villainy! True,
the competition was fair; the business was conducted

724

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

on the same economical principles, chief am/^ng which
was never to kill a man after robbing him unless the
interests of the business seemed to demand it, the idea
being that if all the men were killed there would be
none left to rob. The new proprietor was a dis-
<;harged soldier who had been living for several years
with the Yumas. Seeing how well Glantan was
doing, how easily he amassed property, the honest
soldier and the simple-minded savages could not resist
the temptation. Together they built the fprry and
agreed upon the toll; the Yumas were to have the
patron's clothes, and the soldier his money. The
business was very profitable, but it interfered with
Glautau's schemes, and he determined to close out his
neighbor's business. Accordingly, with his usual de-
moniacal impudence, he went to his rival's house, and
after a few friendly words deliberately drew his re-
volver and shot him dead. The Yumas retaliated by
going to Glantan's encampment and killing him and
all his band save two.

An agreement having been made between the
United States and ]Mexico for the establishment of
Fort Yuma, General Heintzelman arrived shortly
after the massacre of Glantan's band with two com-
panies of United States troops, and fulfilled the agree-
ment. In 1853 one Hartshorn obtained a contract
from the government for carrying freight to the
mouth of the Colorado River. Captains Wilcox and
Johnson became connected with him in the business,
the result being the opening of a line of ocean and
river steamers. In 1854 a store was opened on thr
east side of the river for the soldiers at Fort Yuma.
Gradually small adobe houses were built around the
store, enclosed by the rudest of brush fences, until
the place assumed sufficient importance to be digni-
fied with the name of Arizona City.

In January 1801 a Texan named Mateo, of Spanish
descent, stopped one night at the camp of two wood-
choppers, on the Colorado River, where he asked for

CATTLE -STEALIXG.

food and to be accommodated for the night : a request
cheerfully complied with. In the night he arose, and
taking an axe killed both the men. Then he secureil
the effects which he sought, and placed them in a skiff,
with the clothes which he had stripped from the men
whom he had murdered, and whose bodies he threw
into the water. Jumping into the skiff, he pushed
down the river, feeling that his detection was a most
improbable thing. The following day some Indians
visited the wood-choppers' camp and at once .suspected
foul play. Fort Yuma was on the opposite side of the
river, in that vicinity, where information of their sus-
picions was at once brought by the Indians. Soldiers
sent in quest of the murderer discovered Mateo and
handed him over to the citizens, wlio summarily exe-
cuted him. Mateo was well known in Los Angeles,
having been employed as a teamster between that
place and San Pedro for some months.

It was an easy and not uncommon thing for Amer-
ican renegades to cross the frontier, alight on a liaci-
enda, nmrder the keepers, and drive the stock across
the line into United States territory. Again a Mex-
ican would engage his services to an American farmer,
gain his confidence, and at the proper time his coin-
padres would appear, kill the people, plunder the
premises, and flee into Mexico. Probably the greatest
depredations were committed along the Texan side of
the upper Rio Grande, where were pastured countless
herds of cattle, guarded by a few men, the owneis
hving at a distance from them. Early in 1 872 it was
stated in congress that in Tauiaulipas, Nut^vo Leon,
and Coahuila, cattle bearinj^' Texan brands wert' sold
cheaper than in Texas, it costing less to steal than t « >
raise them. Moonlight nights were generally selected
b}' cattle banditti, who avoided as much as possible
encounters with the owners, though upon occasion they
did not hesitate to murder.

While the people of the United States were urging
the bitterest complaints against Mexico, scarcely any

786

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

attention was paid to the punishment of crime on the
Texan side of the Rio Grande. It was stated that up
to the autumn of 1877, notwithstanding the fearful
prevalence of murder in that locahty, not a single legal
conviction or execution had taken place. Both people
and property were too erratic in their liabits. A
drover with his stock would be here one day and a
Imndred miles hence a week after. Only nomadic
justice and drum-head law could follow crime in such
a society.

By stipulation of the extradition treaty between
Mexico and the United States of the 1 1th of April
1881, neitlier of the contracting parties were bound
io make delivery of their citizeu.s to the other; so
that Sonorans could kill and rob in Arizona, and
Arizonians in Sonora, and escaping over the line sit
♦lown quietly and snap their fingers in the face of
Justice. On the 24th of December 1870 three men,
Reid, Lytle, and Olliver, were murdered at Mission
Camj) by three Me.'cicans, who immediately escaped to
Sonora. The 2d oi' January following, Governor
Safford sent an ugent for them. Tiiey were found
without difficulty, but the ^Li'overnor of Sonora, Pes-
([Ueira, declined to give them up, i.nd referred tlic
matter to tlie tsecretary of state, who issued a circular
to all prefects to have the criminals ariosted it' found,
but not to deliver them out of tlicir liuiids.

A. man named Balcer, living at Blue Water Station,
in Arizona, drove a stage between that place and
Tucson. He was a peaceable citizen, well and favora-
bly known. On the night of the 2iNt of December
1871 his home wa.s entered by Mexicans, and Baker,
with all his family, massacred, The murder was
<liscovered a few days latc'i- by a traveller, who, en-
tering the house, saw the remains of Mr and Mrs
leaker, their little sun, and an infant. Inuuediately
upon reporting tlu; ease a reward of one thousand
dollars was offered for the detecti()ji of the ruffians,
but the case was iibandoned upon iiearing that the

MEXICANti AMD AMERICANS.

787

Mexicans had reached Sonora and were under tlie
protection of the Mexican government.

On one occasion Governor McCormick, in speaking
of the border troubles, remarked that when the Blue
Water and Mission Camp murders were committed
he reported the same to the authorities at Washing-
ton, sajMug that should such things continue there
were strong probabilities that an armed force would
invade Mexico and retaliate. The matter was then
brought before the Mexican government, and the
reply was that they were unable to guard their fron-
tier, and that they could not be held responsible for
the acts of their people across the border.

John H. Tatnuui was killed at Tucson in Mar<.'h
18G7. He was for several years resident of Arizona,
and at one time a member of the California legi.sla-
ture from MaripoLsa County. It was rumored that in
a gambling dispute he killed a soldier, and that his
own life was taken in revenge by the comrades of the
murdered nian.

Says the iVrizona Miiirr of the 14th of .January
1871 on the state of affairs at that time:

"The alarming frequency of deeds of violence in our loinuninity, and the
tardiness with which justice is jneted out, will, wo fear, judging from the
ominous muttcringa of the people, cubninate in a. viyilance coniinittee, the
self-constituted arbitei-s of Justice si> coninion to the frontier, or wherever laws
arc not promptly and strictly enforced. Although wocii'ty li.i.s heeii outraged.
and murder and homicide pei-jetrated with unpreccdente>l iiml reikkiSH indjt-
ferencc by lawless and desperate men, yet wo hope the necessity for a vigil-
ance committee, the existonoc of which nil 1 iw-.-ibiding citizen.s muHt ever
deprecate, may not arise, "

The futile appeals made to both the Mexican and
American governments fur protection, and the pro-
longed delay in an adjustment of (Ufficulties, compelled
the citizens to avenijt.' their own wroiis's or to submit
unprotected to continued outrjtges.

A station -keeper named William McFarland, an
honest and respected man, employed at Sacaton, (jn
the Tucson road, in March 1872 had occasion to go

72S

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

through Florence and Sanford to Gdndara's rancho,
after leaving which he mysteriously disappeared.
Search was made, and a reward of twfdve hundred
dollars offered for information which should lead to a
solution of the mystery. The massacre of the Baker
family, previously mentioned, and many other murders,
stimulated the people to action. Accordingly a large
party of Americans went to Gdndara's to make inves-
tigations concerning the disappearance of McFarland.
Upon ascertaining that Gandara Was at home, Bodel,
one of the party, started to go into the house, when Gdn-
dara accosted him with "•AdiosT and drawing a con-
cealed weapon killed him. Gdndara then undertook to
escape, but was riddled with balls within twenty feet of
his liouse. The Americans returned to Sanford breatii-
ing vengeance. On the following day, Sunday, the}'^
started m pursuit of Manuel Reyes, who had threat-
ened to kill four Americans in revenge for the death
of a comrade. Reyes took refuge in a house where
there werc^ several women and children. At an early
hour a (nowd collected about the place and ordered
all the inmates but Reyes to leave the house. As
soon as the order was obeyed an onslaught was made,
and amid general shooting Reyes was killed. An
hour or two before, Aguilar, another Mexican, was
shot from his horse. Fears were <".itcrtained of a
general u[)rising of the Mexicans, a.id places of busi-
nesK in Sanford and Florence were closed, the citizens
holding t}i<'ins<!lves in readiness to act if necessary.
Governor Safford soon after made his appearance; a
body of troops was stationed in the vicinity, and peace
was finally restored. McFarland's body was shortly
afterward found buried u few mihs from Gdndara's.

King S. Woolsey, whose rancho was at Stanwix
Station, had a Mexican boy, wlioni he had brought up
with the kindness of a father. A Mexican desperado
formerly in his employ met the boy one day and told
him he was going to the rancho to kill Woolsey. The
boy replied that he would have to kill him first; and

MARIANO TISNADO.

after some further discu^.-ion the man did shoot the
boy so that ho died. Mexicans in Woolsey's employ
caught the murderer and determined to take his life.
He was guarded by his countrymen during the night.
Woolsey advised them to act calmly. On the follow-
ing day, August 8, 1872, the boy was buried, and the
man led out and shot beside the boy's grave.

At Kenyon Station, on the Yuma road, Edward
Lumley was killed on the 18th of August 1873 by
Liicas Luga^s and Manuel Subiate. He was beaten,
stabbed, and shot; and tlie frequency and brutality
of these outrages induced extreme measures for the
arrest of the guilty Mexicans. On the 31st of the
month Lugas was found in a thick underbrusli, whore
he was shot after a vain attempt to kill his pursuers.
Subiate was also captured the same day and i)laced in
the Yuma County jail. His denial of complicity in
the murder was rebutted by strong circumstantial
evidence, as he wus on one of Moore and Carr's stage
horses taken from Kenyon Station, and had tho
clothing and dog of Lugas with him. On the 8ili of
August four nicM were hanged for murders committed
the previous day. This prompt and determined action
of the people was necessary to save the lives and
property of the scattered population.

A Mexican named Mariano Tisnado was arrested
for cattle-stealing in Plionix, Arizona, and strong
suspicions were entertained that 1k' was accessory to
the recent murder of Mr Grilfin. It was announced
that his trial would take phice the 3(1 of .Inly I H73.
Earlv that morninjjc there was an unusual influx of
farmers coming from every direction, well armed,
quiet, and resolute. At six o'clock they assenil)led at
the court-house scpiarc Half an hour latei' .i stranger,
just arrived, observing several groups of peoplo talk-
ing on the street-corners, stepped up to one of thi^m
and inquired, "What is the excitement?" "Nothing,"
was the reply, "it's all over now, at the same time
pointing significantly to Monihon's corral. The inter-

I li

780

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

locutor walked to the place indicated, and there saw
the body of Mariano Tisuado suspended from the gate
of Monihon and Starrar's corral, on Cortes street.
The farmers had executed Tisnado, as they feared
that the result of his trial would be his acquittal.

About midnight on the 3d of August 1873 a Mex-
ican couple, Vicente Hernandez and his wife, were
murdered in their home at Tucson with knives and
clubs by Leonardo Cdrdoba, Clemente Lopez, and
Jesus Saguaripa. The murderers were arrested on
the following day, and a confession obtained from
Coidolui acknowledging the participation of each in
the deod. He also thsclosed the place where tho
plunder was buried. The following day the funeral
occurred, and so indignant were the people that after
the services they convened on this court-house plaza
and advised as to the course to be pursued with the
murderers. The confession mado by C6r(loba was road
in Spanish and in English to the assembly, and an
expression of the nu'oting called for. The unanimous
demand was that tlie murderers should be executed at
once. There had been nmch to aggravate the people
in the disregard of justice, particularly in letting mui-
derers go unpunished. At the March session of tlu;
court two noted criminals were given their freedoni,
thtmgh it was well known they had taken the lives
of innocent men. There was in the jail at tlie time of
the present excitement auotlier murderer, John Wilhs
by name, who it was determined should he liang<j<l
with the three Mexicans. Aeconhngly tlie meeting
adjourned until the following morning, August 8th,
when at an early hour the jail was surrounded and
the prisoners demanded. In the mean time two forked
posts were planted in front of the jail dooi' and a pole
placed on them. Four ropes with nooses were then
suspended from the pole. A Catholic priest was
summoned and allowed sufficient time for his minis-
trations. The prisoners were then led lorth ;ind
hanged. The report of the inquest is interesting, as

EXI'LOIT OF JOHN WILLIS.

7S1

Hhowiug the feeling entertained by the community at
the time:

"Wo, tho umleraigned, the jurors Bummoned to appear before Solomon
Warner, the coroner of the county of Pima, at Tucson, on tho 8th day of August
1873, to inquire into tho cause of the death of John Willis, Leonard C6rdoba,
Clement Lopez, and Jesus Saguaripa, find that they came to their deaths on
the 8th day of August 1873, about 11 :30 o'clock in tho morning, in the court-
house plaza, in tho town of Tucson, by hanging; and wo further find thut
said hanging was committed by tlx; people of Tucson en jncuae; and we do
further say that, in view of the tumble and blootly murders which were
committed by tlie three Mexicans named above, and the tardiness with
which justice wns l>eing meted out to Jolin Willis, a murderer, the extreme
incasuros token by our fellow-citizens this morning in vindication of their
lives, their iii-opcrty, and the peace and good order of society, wliilo it in to lie
regretted and deiilonid tlmt such extreme measures were necessary, scum to
have liecn tho inevitable results of allowing crimuuUs to escape the penalties
of their crimes. "

The grand jury in ( )ct()ber spoke of this action of the
peo[)le as having been taken at "a mass meeting of
the citizens of the town of Tucson, numbering several
hundred, and composts! for- the most part of the best
and most inlluential citizens of the town. The hanging
was done ai mcvisc, cahnly and deliberately, believing
it was for the best interests of tho community at
large. The verdict of the coroner's jury held on the
day of the hanging accurately expresses the sense of
a very large niaj(»rity of our most substantial, peace-
able, and law-abiding citizens."

The man John Willis, who was executed with the
Mexicans, is credited with the following sanguinary ex-
ploit: One night in November 1872, at Adamsville,
Arizona, Colonel Kennedy was slain by John Rogers.
The body lay yet unburied wlien Bob Swoope heard
of it. Bob was at Sanfoid at the time, and being a
warm personal friend oi' the oolonel, he was deeply
moved on receipt of the sad intelligence. To have
killed Rogers, even though he were a descendant of
the martyr, would have afforded him some relief; but
this being impracticable, he took a driidc. Still feeling
badly, he took another drink, which opened the way tor
tt third, and soon Bob was sorrowfully drunk.

732

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

" I will go to that funeral if it kills me," said he to
John Willis, whom he met while in this ultra-emo-
tional mood.

" I reckon not," replied Willis.

"I tell you I shfldl gol" exclaimed Bob, waxing
warm.

"Oh no you won't 1" retorted Willis.

•" I'll bet I dol" cried Bob, more warmly.

"I'll bet you don't 1" said Willis, as he drew a
revolver and shot his friend through the heart.
Willis was arrested and indicted in March 1873, but
his trial was postponed until May. On the 24th of
the month the jury pronounced a verdict of guilty
of murder in the first degree, but the sentence of the
judge that Willis should be hanged was issued without
naming the day for his execution, whereupon the
case was appealed to the supreme court. The grand
jury, reporting upon the affair, says: "After an ex-
haustive, fair, and impartial trial of about one week's
duration, at great cost to the county and some sacri-
fice to the trial jurors, John Willis was found guilty
of murder, and as his case had been appealed to the
supreme court upon some trivial excuse, a general
belief prevailed that it would end as did that of An-
thony Dorman and others, and that he would event-
ually be set free or make his escape, to f'lrther prey
upon the people, as has been the case in all other
cases of murder since Tucson has been under the
jurisdiction of the civil law." This is a continuation
of the report previously quoted, exculpating those
who at last assumed the responsibility of ridding the
community of four dangerous characters.

G. R. Whisler, a man fifty years of age, keeper of
Burke Station, on the Lower Gila, was murdered at
noon on the 7th of July 1874 by a Mexican named
Ventura Nunez. Threats had been made by border
bandits to murder all the station-keepers from Gila
Bend to Yuma, and the discovery of Whisler's violent
death excited intense apprehension. Governor Saf-

0 TEMPUS FERAX RERUM !

ford inaugurated a plan, which worked very success-
fully, authorizing responsible parties to offer suitable
rewards for the apprehension of criminals. Accordingly
Woolsey, of Stanwix Station, nine miles below Burke,
immediately offered five hundred dollars for Ventura
Nunez, dead or alive. Three men started in pur-
suit, and overtook the Mexican, who, having ridden
down his own and a stage horse, was on foot. Ho
was captured near the copper mines, sixty miles south
of Burke Station, after having about twenty shots
fired at him, one of which penetrated hia leg. Ho
was searched and some of the stolen property found ;
he acknowledged the crime, and was brought back on
the 11th of December to the scene of the murder,
where there was a large assembly of men from the
various stations, who took the man from the authori-
ties and hanged him. This decisive action, it was felt,
would be efhcacious in deterring these ruffians from
the commission of such crimes, for love of life is strong
within them, though they hold in light esteem the
lives of others.

Oliver P. McCoy on the 3d of August 1877 near
Safford, Arizona, discharged both barrels of a shot-
gun loaded with fine and buck shot into the body of
J. P. Lewis, who was attending to some irrigating,
killing him almost instantly. McCoy gave himself
up, and was examined by a justice, before whom he
acknowledged the crime. Next day he was to have
been sent to Tucson, but that night he was taken by
the people and hanged.

Nothing was created in vain; even desperadoes
serve a good purpose sometimes. Along the Amer-
ican border during the past century they have done
far more toward the execution of justice in killing
each other than was done by all the law courts in the
land. What a godsend it is to a community for five
or six of their ruffians to kill each other, leaving only
one survivor for the people to hang. On the morn-
ing of the 18th of December 1877, at Hackberry,

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Sciences

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23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER N.Y. 14580

^716) 372-4503

734

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

Arizona, Bob White attempted to shoot Frank Mc-
Niel, a stranger, after a few angry words over a trivial
matter. McNiel disarmed White, and led him into a
saloon to his friends, as he had no wish to quarrel with
the fellow. Shortly afterward Charlie Rice, one of
White's friends, approached McNiel and shot him,
causing his death. The citizens turned out en masse,
and capturing Rice, hanged him. In the mean time
White, attempting to escape, was pierced with bullets
and fell dead.

L. V. Grimes and C. B. Hawley, confessing to cer-
tain robberies and murders, were hanged at Globe,
Arizona, by thirty citizens, early in the morning of
the 24th of August 1882.

The greatest sufferers from the lax administration
of justice in New Mexico were foreigners, especially
citizens of the United States, against whom there
was no little prejudice.

Notwithstanding the general perversion of justice
in New Mexico, capital crimes were rare, though petty
thefts were frequent. Doubtless fear of the savages
prevented the highway robbery which so long and
so mercilessly oppressed many parts of Mexico. To
leave an article exposed was not sale for a moment,
and though thievery was so common it was difficult
to catch rogues, for few would inform.

Very dift'erent was the management of afiairs under
royal regime, as the following incident testifies: In
1815a soldier named Cora stole a few articles of no
great value from the public storehouse at Santa Fd,
then in charge of Lieutenant Don Valentin Moreno.
Cora was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced
to be shot; nor did the solicitations of some of the
most influential men in the province save liim from
death.

The insurrection of 1837 was something more than
an Indian outbreak. The pueblo natives, semi-civil-
ized when first found, were but little lower in the

VERY LARGE MOBS.

735

scale of humanity than the Mexicans themselves.
The territorial government, by act of the Mexican
congress, had just been erected into a departmental
government, and Perez, in January 1837, appointed
governor. His rule was regarded by the Pueblos as
arbitrary and unjust. Among other oppressive meas-
ures, a tax had been laid on tobacco ; and further con-
templated impositions were feared.

In July 1837 the Pueblos rose in rebellion, San
Juan taking the lead. About the beginning of August
a great multitude gathered at La Canada, among
whom were the chiefs and principal warriors of the
Pueblos. Perez issued orders for the mustering of
the militia, but not more than one hundred and fifty
could be found. With these he marched against the
insurgents, but was repulsed, many of his force going
over to the enemy. With about twenty-five officials
and friends he fled southward, fearing to rel'irn to
Santa Fd; but they were overtaken and drivc;i back
to the suburbs of the city, where Perez was killed,
Jesus Maria Alarid, secretary of state, and Ramon
Abred, prefect of Rio Arriba, were also slain and their
bodies mutilated.

Anarchy followed. At a mass meeting held at
Santa Fd, resolutions opposed to the Perez policy
were passed and a provisional government adopted.
Two thousand insurgents pitched their camp before
the capital the 9th of August, and the horrors of a
saquSo were feared, but no outrage was attempted.
Many of the insurgents remained in and about the city
for two days, during which time one of their leaders,
Jose Gonzalez of Taos, honest but unlearned, was
chosen governor, and Antonio Domingo Lopez lieu-
tenant-governor.

At Tome on the 8th of September one Manuel
Armijo pronounced against the insurgents. Men
gathered to his standard; and after having pro-
claimed himself governor, he marched, the 1 3th of
September, with a large body against the insurgents,

730

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

primarily the Pueblos, but now increased by discon-
tented white men to a formidable organization. Gon-
zalez prepared for battle, but persuaded by a priest
to capitulate, he was first confined, and on the 25th
of January 1838 was hanged at Santa Cruz with
Lopez. Armijo for his service and successes was
confirmed as governor by the authorities at the City
of Mexico.

This Armijo, in common with rulers and magis-
trates of his day, employed singular methods in
determining guilt. In January 1840 two foreigners
returning from the mines to Santa Fd had the misfor-
tune to kill a Mexican lad by the accidental discharge
of one of their guns. Carrying the body into town,
they at once reported the circumstance to the au-
thorities. The chief alcalde consulted with Armijo
as to what should be done. After due deliberation
and with a little gravity, although there had been no
examination or form of trial, it was determined that
the strangers should be imprisoned for murder and
there kept until they should prove their innocence.
In time the absurdity of the thing became apparent
to the people, and their manifest disapprobation at
length induced the judge and governor to give the
men their liberty.

The manifestation of feeling against foreigners was
frequent, such as the capture in 1841 of the Santa
F(S expedition, the beating to death in open day of a
dumb Creole at Taos, the entering and robbing of
Rowland's store by a mob led by the alcalde of San
Miguel. At the same time no little excitement pre-
vailed at Santa ¥6, where an attack was made on the
United States consul, Manuel Alvarez. Backed by a
band of sans-culottes, one Martin, nephew and confiden-
tial agent of the governor, approached the consul's
house with murderous intent. Drawing a large
knife, he told the crowd to keep back until he called
them; he entered the house secretly and attacked
Alvarez, cutting him severely in the face. The consul

TRIAL BY ROPE AND DRUM-HEAD.

737

narrowly escaped with his Ht'e, jiiiJ the nephew was
promoted for his pains.

During the spring of 1847 the Santa Fe roads were
infested with Pawnees and Conianches, who fear-
lessly attacked the government trains, beat down the
escorts, drove off the cattle, and often killed many
people. One of these cases occurred near the Grand
Arkansas on the 2 2d of June, when a large body of
natives attacked a returning government train, over-
powered the teamsters, and captured eiglity yoke of
oxen. Lieulenant Love's convoy, with three hun-
dred thousand dollars in specie, was attacked four
days after near the Arkansas by about five hundred
native warriors, who took one hundred and fifty yoke
of oxen. Pursued by twenty of Love's men, tliey \vd
them into ambush and cut off their retreat. A tierce
fight ensued, but the white men finally forced a pas-
sage and made good their retreat. The natives lost
twenty-five killed and many wounded, while the killed
and wounded -of the white men numbered eleven.

On the 28th of June 1847 Lieutenant Brown and
privates McClanahan and Quisenbury were sent with
a Mexican guide in pursuit of some Mexicans who a
day or two before had stolen the hoi"ses belonging to
Captain Horine's troop near Las Vegas. After several
days had elapsed without information from the party,
it was conjectured that they had been murdered.
This supposition seemed confirmed by a statement
ir^ade to Major Edmondson by a Mexican lady, who
affirmed that three Americans and one Mexican had
been killed near Las Vegas and their bodies burned.
Three Mexicans, whose appearance had excited sus-
picion, were brought into camp, and an attempt made
to obtain information on the subject from them; as
they would make no disclosures, one of them was
hanged until nearly dead, when on being lowered the
third time he admitted the truth of the Mexican
lady's statement. Major Edmondson at once ordered
a detachment of twenty-nine cavalry and thirty -three

Pop. Tbib,, Vol. I. 47

738

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

infantry with one howitzer to march at once on Las
Vegas. A charge was made, in which ten Mexi-
cans were killed, fifty taken prisoners, and the re-
mainder driven from the place. Tried by drum-head
court-martial at Santa Fd, sentence of death was
pronounced upon six of the prisoners, and on the 3d
of August in presence of the army they were exe-
cuted.

After the defeat of the Mexicans, search was made
for the remains of Lieutenant Brown and his com-
panions. The body of the former was found concealed
among the rocks ; it had not been burned out of rever-
ence for the cross which lay upon the breast. The
ashes of the others were discovered, and their weapons
and clothes found in different houses. The larger
portion of the town was burned by the soldiers, as
were also the mills belonging to the alcalde, who was
known to have sanctioned the murder of Lieutenant
Brown's party.

There were on the 19th of January 1847 two
Pueblos confined in the prison at Taos, and, as their
towns-people thought, unjustly. At all events they
determined on their release, and a deputation was sent
from their village, twelve miles away, to Taos to make
the demand. Lee, the sherifi", saw the approaching
storm and recommended tolerant measures, but the
prefect, a Mexican, forbade him to release the prisoners.
Thereupon the deputation killed both sheriff and pre-
fect, and opened the prison doors.

The villagers then marched to the house of Governor
Bent, who arose, dressed quickly, and sought to gain
the street, but before he could escape he was shot.
District-attorney Leal was likewise shot; also the son
of Judge Baubien. The same day seven Americans
were killed at the Arroyo Hondo, two at the Rio
Colorado, and civil war ensued.

At the time of the murder of Governor Bent,
general alarm spread through all that section of
country. The outrages that preceded and followed

TUKL1':V AM) HIS MEN.

73!)

added proportionate anxiety. A man of wealth and
prominence named Turley was warned that his life
Mas in danger. He listened fearlessly to the intimi-
dation, his unsuspicious nature refusing to believe that
malice could be cherished toward him. Generous with
his wealth, he never refused a Mexican who applied
to him for aid; the hungr}"^ were supplied from his
granaries, and poverty was relieved by his bounty.
Turley owned a mill and distillery adjoining his house.
At the solicitation of his men they were permitted
to fortify themselves against possible attack, their
little garrison being composed of eight white men,
Americans, French Canadians, and Englishmen, well
supplied with arras and ammunition.

These precautionary measures were scarcely com-
pleted before a large force of Mexicans and Indians
appeared and demanded Turley's surrender, at the
same time guaranteeing the safety of his life. Turley
refused to surrender his house or his men. A short
consultation between the Mexicans followed this reply,
and then they commenced an attack. Their force was
composed of five hundred men, with numbers hourly
increasing. Secreting themselves among bushes and
crouching behind rocks, they kept up an incessant fire.
The Americans had blockaded and loop-holed their
windows, and with their rifles they now picked off
every man who in the least exposed himself. Night
brought quiet, but the next day the fight was vigor-
ously renewed. In the mean time some of the Mexi-
cans had gained possession of the stables separated
but a few feet from the main building. An attempt
was made to cross the narrow space, but when it was
discovered Turley's men quickly prepared for them. A
Pueblo chief attempted to cross, but a shot dropped
him in the centre of the space. A warrior darted out
to recover the body, but another shot stretched him
beside his chief. Two others met a similar fate; at
last three rushed to the spot, and had seized the body
when three sharp cracks from as many rifles added

7^0

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

tlioir lifeless bodies to the number already stretched
upon the ground.

Unerring aim had become a necessity, for their
ammunition was much reduced. The attack was now
renewed more fiercely; the assailants poured in a vol-
ley, and two of the defenders fell moitally wounded.
A still greater danger now threatened them; the mills
were discovered to be on fire, and the flames must iii-
i'vitably communicate with their own building. Twice
they succeeded in extinguishing the fire, only to see
it break out elsewhere. Though the mill was but par-
tially burned resistance was useless, but rather than
surrender they determined if p(issible to effect their
escape during the night.

At dusk John Albert and a companion, two of the
besieged party, rushed suddenly from the building
and discharged their rifles at the foe, Albert then
threw himself upon the ground, and crawling beneath
a fence, remained there until dark, when he started
for the Greenhorn, undiscovered by the enemy, and
reached the place in an exhausted condition. His
companion was discovered, stabbed with knives and
lances, and shot.

Turley succeeded in eluding the enemy and reached
the mountains in safety. There he met a Mexican,
who expressed great commiseration, and sympathiz-
ingly offered him assistance if he would remain con-
cealed until his return from a certain place where he
would go for horses. The Mexican then went directly
to the mill and reported Turlej-'s place of conceal-
ment. A party of Mexicans at once started out,
found Turley, and shot him dead. The remainder of
the number who had so valiantly defended Turley and
his premises succeeded in reaching Santa Fe in safety.
The mill was pillaged by the Mexicans, and a large
amount of money taken.

At a fandango in Socorro some ruffians in 1851
killed Assistant-quartermaster Clark of the boundary
commission, stabbing him with bowie-knives. An ar-

THK TKXAX RORPKR.

741

151

iry

rest was uuulo of ciijflit or ten persons thought to ho
iniphoatod in the crime, wli(t were tried liefore a jury
composed of six Mexicans and six connnissioners.
The trial lasted two days, resulting in the conviction
and execution of three of the criminals. A reward
of four hundred dollars was offered for the arrest of
Young, the leader of the band, who was soon captured,
and after a trial and a full confession of liis grilt was
hanged upon the same tree which had hoor used for
the execution (»f his accomplices.

Of all the towns of New Mexico none enjoyed a
greater notoriety foi- low morality than Manzana,
where about the year 185o appeared to rendezvous
desperate men and vile women of every description.

The following incident, illustrative of the cunning
of the ii'entlc savnii't', occurred at Fort l^eiianco in
1854. The Navajos had murdered a man near the
fort, and at once an impei-ativc order ^\■as sent them
by Major Kendricks to deliver the murderer to him.
After a little ))arleying. the chiefs saw that no com-
promise could be effected, and consented to the hanging
of the murderer, only stipulating that they them-
selves should be permitted to execute him. This was
allowed. At the hour of execution the troops were
drawn up in line and witnessed the fulfilment of the
agreement, as they supposed; but some time after-
ward the revelation was made that instead of the
murderer a Mexican ca[)tive had been executed.

Among stock-raisers inhabiting the western terri-
tory the depredations of Comanche and other cattle-
stealers were conducted on an extensive scale. It
was estimated that one hundred thousaiul head of
cattle had been stolen from the north-western )>art
of Texas between 1853 and 1873 and that they had
been sold in New Mexico. A rich stock-raiser in
Palo Pinto having lost heavily in this way, followed
the natives, and at great trouble and expense recov-
ered several thousand head from New Mexico. He

742

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

icj)()rted a groat many persons in the territory aa
directly and indirectly abetting this traffic, by ex-
changing arms and clothing for stolen cattle. The
commissioners of the Mexican frontier complained
that cattle stolen from that country were also in New
Mexico.

Great as was the sorrow of the times in these local-
ities, when we read in the Galveston News of May
1875 that in three counties of Texas in a single day
seventeen men were ai'bitrarily executed, we may
hide our modest heads that our annals show so few
such takings-off.

The cries of "Death to the Gringos!" and "Viva
Mexico I" were raised by the Mexicans in the towns
of Isleta and Saullizarco, on the Texan border, the
Othof October 1877. Four hundred armed Mexicans,
one hundred of them from the Mexican side of the
river, toolc possession of El Paso, Texas, claiming that
territory as a part of jMexico. Judge Charles H.
Howard was made prisoner by the mob and bound
Avith ropes. The seizure of the officials of the entire
countv was effijcted. General Escobedo was tried at
Brownsville, Texas, for violation of the United States
neutrality laws, but was acquitted, as it could not be
proved that the armed men in camp with him actually
intended to invade Texas. Lieutenant-general Sher-
idan, in his annual report dated October 27tli, giving
a detailed account of border troubles, said that cattle
ran loose by thousands on the American side of the
river, and Mexicans and Indians used to come over
and steal them.

Nowhere have I seen more boldly displayed the
irony of Chiistian outlawry than on this Texan fron-
tier, where drinking, gambling, cattle-stealing, duelling,
prize-fighting, camp-meeting, highway -robbery, throat-
cutting, promiscuous shooting, and psalm-singing are
so simultaneously rampant, where representatives of
Christ and Belial turn bruisers and batter one another
in most ungodly fashion, where piety and infernal dis-

TUE HISIVUN'OCALIFORNIANS.

7i;'.

cord are so indiscriuiinatoly mixed as almost to defy
identification. Among specimens of nineteenth-cen-
tury United States ignorance, of blind brutal bigotry,
the sentiment contained in the following notice found
nailed to a tree growing out of the holy soil of Texas,
where a man was whipped in the name of Christianity,
assuredly should bo placed first: "This is to certii'y
that on Saturday night, the Gth of October 1877, th»^
lleveiend Doctor llussell was called to see a mover's
wife, camped at this [)lace, and on the doctor's arrival
three other men came out and captured him, and hit
him a hundred licks vith a leather strap, and let him
loose on condition that he nmst not lecture or tlebatt-
on inlitlelity any more in this country. Now a word
to Nunncly, Posey, Marshall, and in fact to all the
leading men of tho infidel club: If any of you take
his i)lace wo will burn }^u out of house and Jiome, and
hang you until you are dead. If any man in this
county is injured on account of what has been done,
wc will burn you all out. We have got fifty men to
back us. Gents, we mean business; infidelity has got
to stop in this county as well as stealing."

Returning for .*, moment to California, as a fair and
truthful historian I cannot close this volume without
laying before the reader the credit side of law. We
cannot deny that law does something; let us sec what
it accomplished during our earlier years, that the
charge of prejudice may not lie at our door. In
God's name let us have the truth. Let us frankly
acknowledge our indebtedness to laws, law courts,
judges, and lawyers, for what they have done and
are doing for us.

But first let us glance at what the Hispano-Califor-
nians did before the institutions of the great republic
were thrown over the country, and compare their
doings with ours; for we are inclined to regard our
ways superior to theirs.

The legal executions in California prior to 1847

ArilZONA, NHW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

were aH follows: First, under the Spanish adminis-
tration of* FclijH' do Neve, at San Dicj^o April 11.
1778, Aaran, Alcuirin, Achil, and Taquaqui, Pamii
<;lii»!l'H guilty of a cons[)iracy against the lives of the
whites, and who in consideration of future good con-
<luct hud in 1770 Ijoen pardoned after conviction of
))articipation in the i-evolt of the previous year, were by
oi'der of Couiandante Ortega shot to death. Duriny;
the adiiiiiiistiation of Diego de Borica, at Santa Bdr-
hara Januniy 10, 1795, Ignacio Rochin, murderer,
was shot to death by sentence of the real audiencia
of (Tuadalajara. A woman who was his accomplice
was sentenced to six years' domestic service without
wages.

Under Jose de Joaquin de Arrillaga, at Santa Bar-
bara on the Uth of February 1801 Josd Antonio
Rosas, native of Los Angeles, soldier of the Santa
J-Jiiibara prcsidial company, eighteen years of age,
was condemned for the crime of bestiality with a
mule on the "JOth of June 1800. He was sentenfrrl
by the auditor de giiei-ra, in accordance with royal or-
dinance, to be hanged till dead, and his body then to
b<.' burned with that of the beast. The sentence was
confirmed by the viceroy. As there was no hangman
at hand the young soldier was shot, and the sentence
otherwise carried into effect.

I^'^nder Mexican rule, during the administration of
Lu . Antonio Arguello, at Monterey the 6th of Feb-
ruary 1824, Pom})onio, neoplwte of San Francisco
mission, a noted outlaw guilty of many murders,
lapes, and robberies, was shot to death by order of
court-martial. At La Purisima Concepcion, March
25, 1824, seven Indian rebels, Baltasar, Pacifico,
Estevan, Gines, Antonio, Felipe, and Jose Andres,
Avere shot to death by order of the court-martial for
the murder of Dolores Sepi'dveda and three com-
panions.

Under the administration of Manuel Victoria, at
Monterey April 26, 1831, Atanasio, an Indian ser-

RIGID JUSTICE.

748

30,

tor

jr-

vant eighteen years of age, was shot to death in
accordance with the sentence of the asesdr, confirmed
by the governor, for stealing a gross of military
buttons. He was suspected of having robbed the
storehouse on various occasions, probably to the ag-
gregate amount of two hundred and fifty dollars,
otherwise his punishment for the theft of the but-
tons might have been less severe. Josd Sagarra, ox-
privateersman of Buchard's expedition of 1818, and
Simon Aguilar, Mexican servant, were shot to death
in Monterey May 28, 1831, for stealing articles of
insignificant value from the warehouse of Carmclo
Mission. At San Francisco in 1831 Francisco Rubio,
alias El Coyote, a soldier of the San Francisco pre-
sidial company, was shot to death for outrage and
iimrder committed on a little girl. Shortly after his
execution it was clearly proved, as some say, that he
was innocen^ f the crirao.

At Monterey April 7, 1840, Diego Feliz, soldier,
was shot for the 1)7 utul assassination of his wife. Ho
was executed b}- order of Castro, approved by the
governor, three hours after he had committed the
bloody deed. In March 1841 three Mexicans, Va-
lencia, Linares, and Duarte, were under sentence of
death at Los Angeles for robbing and murdering the
German trader Nicholas Fink. Meanw^hile the vaga-
bond class had broken into and robbed a tavern, and
committed other violent acts. Thirty-three citizens
petitioned government for a prompt execution of the
trio to serve as an example. On April 7th they were
executed, a strong guard of citizens remaining under
arms for three days to repress any outbreak in favor
of the prisoners. Although the excitement was strong
no disturbance occurred. It was through the exertions
of foreign residents at Los Angeles that these men
were brought to justice. They confessed their guilt in
open court. The judge of the first instance condemned
them to death, and Governor Alvarado approved the
sentence, and ordered the comandante at Santa Bdr-

746

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

bara to carry the same into execution within three
days after the receipt of the order. De Mofras says
that the foreigners intimated to Alvarado that if the
government did not execute the sentence the people
would; but what this dogmatic Frenchman says on
any subject must be taken cum grano salts.

The juez de primera instancia, Manuel Dominguez,
informs the prefect of the second district that on the
7th of July 1842 Samuel Fagget was shot to death.
Manuel Gonzalez, a Peruvian, and sacristan of the
presidial chapel, was shot at Monterey July 27, 1842,
for killing an Englishman. He was sentenced by the
court of first instance; the sentence was confirmed
by the superior tribunal, and its execution ordered by
the governor.

During Pio Pico's administration Juan de Dios, an
Indian, formerly neophyte of La Soledad Mission,
murdered two women and a servant in the suburbs of
Monterey. In the absence of all civil authorities,
Alvarado, Comandante de la linea del Norte, submitted
the matter to a junta de oficiales, and the murderer
was shot to death July 13, 1845. Under the admin-
istration of R. B. Mason, Pedro Gomez, who had
murdered his wife, was shot at Santa Cruz August
16, 1847, having been tried by the alcalde and a jury
of twelve men.

Drop the curtain. Let a lively interlude be sounded ;
then raise it again.

It was a proud day for the law, the 10th of De-
cember 1852. True, it wds only a Spaniard who was
hanged, Jose Forin, and for the murder of a Spaniard,
but then it was the first legal execution San Francisco
had ever seen, and the young metropolis was very
proud of it. High on Russian Hill the gallows was
erected, on the topmost pinnacle, where all the town
might witness the triumphant ceremony, though at the
suggestion of certain ones who had no eye for the beau-
tiful ir public strangulation, the machine was moved
westward over the hill a little way, so that the per-

YOUNG SAN FRANCISCO.

747

formance might be conducted somewhat more mod-
estly. About half the town turned out; so new a
thing it was for the law to punish a murderer. The
poor prisoner thought it unfair to begin with him;
the law had liberated so many hundreds of worse men ;
he thought the law was the friend of criminals, and
though he protested his innocence to the last, the law
was brave and hanged him up right manfully. It was
a glorious sight ! True, the poor fellow was a stranger,
without money, friendless, and unable to speak the
English language. I did not say that for these he
was hanged; true, hundreds more deserving of his
fate stood gaping by, thinking how awful it was, how
righteous the law that punished him who sinned —
and was caught at it. It was a happy sight, I say,
this hanging of the moneyless, friendless Spanish
stranger; it set so splendid an example to other
poor friendless strangers of every nationality. Of
course, to wealthy and respectable criminals the spec-
tacle taught nothing; but they did not dislike it.
Sweet to those who escape just punishment is the
just punishment of others! It was a gala day in San
Francisco, this 10th of December 1852. Russian Hill
was thronged with a great concourse of people. The
Marion Rifles and the California Guard were out,
flaunting their gayest attire. The streets were lined
with carriages ; husbands brought thither their wives,
and mothers their children, to witness tlie rare enter-
tainment. Three or four clergymen with attendant
interpreters assisted at the exodus of this soul; there
must be an example, but let it be made suavitcr in
modo. Finally, with arms pinioned, legs bound, and
black cap drawn over the face, a blow i'rom a hatchet
cut the rope that held in place the platform, and the
friendless unfortunate dropped into eternity.

Not until a year and a half after was there another
legal execution in San Francisco. This made punish-
ment by law very infrequent where crime was so com-
mon— not a single legal execution during the first five

74t

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND MEXICO.

years of law and government round Yerba Buena
Cove, and then so long an interval without another
warning. It was no wonder assassins regarded killing
free to all. July 28, 1854, was the date of the second
extreme example. William B. Shepherd worked for
Henry C. Day, and was betrothed to his daughter.
Day withholding his consent to the union, Shepherd
stabbed him to death, and was hanged for it in a little
valley near the Presidio, ten thousand persons being
present as spectators. Another long interval, and
early in 1856 we find Nicholas Graham hanging in
the jail-yard for killing Joseph Brooks, a fireman on
a bay steamboat. Nearly two years now elapsed be-
fore another legal execution, which was that of Henry
F. N. Mouse for the murder of Peter Becker. De-
cember 10, 1858, was the date of this last punish-
ment. The machinery now worked a little more
evenly. Tipperary Bill, whose true name was Will-
iam Morris, was hanged the 10th of June 1859 for
the killing of Richard H. Doak. The 30th of Sep-
tember 1860 James Whitford was hanged at the
county jail for the murder of Edward Sheridan. Then
follow Frank Bonney and Albert Leo of the same
year; John C. Clarkson in 1861; Barney Olwell and
Antonio Sassovich, Thomas Byrnes, and Chung Wong
in 1866; John Devine, surnamed The Chicken, and
Charles A Russell in 1873; and Chin Mook Sow in
1877. Sixteen executions in thirty years, dating from
1847, the opening year of Yerba Buena's aspirations.
These, with the four hangings by the Vigilance Com-
mittee of 1851, and four by that of 1856, comprise
the catalogue. Millions of money had been paid by
the citizens to keep running criminal courts and police
regulations these thirty years, and hundreds of men
were all the time at large whom the law pronounced
guilty of death, and only sixteen capital punishments I
Says the Sacramento Union of the 28th of May
(jf the citizens composing the Committee of 1856:
"They have calmly stood by and seen and heard of

IMBECILE LAW.

740

some fourteen hundred murders in San Francisco in
SIX years, and only three of the murderers hung,
under the law, and one of those was a friendless Mex-
ican."

I have given in this volume many examples of
Popular Tribunals, but the half has not been told.
n IS safe to say that thus far in the history of these
Pacific States far more has been done toward righting
wrongs and administering justice outside the pale of
law than within it.

Out of five hundred and thirty-five homicides which
occurred in California during the year 1855 there
were but seven legal executions and forty-nine in-
formal ones. Of the latter ten occurred in the month
of January, not one of which would have been con-
summated if left to the machinery of law. So it was
m Nevada ten years later: to one hundred and fifty
homicides there were but two legal executions. It
was the Augustan age of murder.

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